Johnson Matthey expects good second half

24th Nov 2010 07:05

Speciality chemicals group Johnson Matthey saw good growth in most of its markets in the first half, especially catalysts for light duty vehicles in North America and Asia.Profit before tax rose to £144.1m in the half-year to 30 September from £109.5m the year before. Underlying profit before tax surged 44% to £164.3m from £114.4m in 2009.Revenue climbed 28% to £4,562m from £3,577m a year earlier, while sales excluding precious metals jumped by a quarter to £1,104m from £883m a year earlier.The Environmental Technologies division saw sales and underlying operating profit up 29% and 41% respectively.The Precious Metals Products division's sales were 25% ahead of last year while underlying operating profit improved by 65%.The Fine Chemicals division's sales increased by 8% and underlying operating profit, excluding the one-off benefit from the launch of the generic version of ADDERALL XR, was up by 25% year on year."The group benefited from improved economic conditions and management actions taken within the business during the downturn," said Neil Carson, chief executive of Johnson Matthey."The outlook for the second half of the year for the group is good and we expect that the results will be broadly in line with those of the first half," Carson added.The interim dividend has been bumped up by 13% to 12.5p from 11.1p last year.