Johnson Matthey reports first quarter sales growth

25th Jul 2013 07:41

British chemicals and precious metals company Johnson Matthey said profits grew in the first quarter as sales across all businesses rose.Sales, excluding precious metals, were up 13% to £745m with growth across all of the divisions.Operating profit climbed 10% to £116.1m while underlying pre-tax profit was up 8.0% at £106m. The group's balance sheet remains strong and at June 30th net debt was £881m, in line with expectations.The Emission Control Technologies division saw its sales increase 9.0% to £404m.Process Technologies sales were up 19% to £144m, boosted by the acquisition of Formox which was completed at the end of last year. Precious Metal Products sales were up 3.0% to £110m as the division's Services businesses benefited from high intake volumes at its platinum group metals refineries in the final quarter of last year. Fine Chemicals sales grew by 5.0% to £81m. However, operating profit was lower than last year as the benefits of the restructuring during the second half of 2012/13 have yet to impact the division's results. Looking ahead, demand for the group's products is steady but performance in the second quarter of 2013/14 is anticipated to be slightly down on the first quarter, primarily due to planned summer shutdowns in the automotive industry. Guidance for the year remains unchanged with the company expecting progress in 2013/14 notwithstanding the loss of revenue from Anglo Platinum from January 1st 2014. RD