Johnson Matthey well ahead of last year

19th Jul 2011 08:05

Sales and profits at Johnson Matthey both registered double-digit percentage gains in the first quarter of the platinum refiner's fiscal year."Johnson Matthey has made further good progress in the first quarter of 2011/12 with sales excluding precious metals (sales) up 12% to £617 million. Underlying profit before tax increased by 19% to £98.2 million, benefiting principally from higher demand for our products and operational leverage," said chairman Sir John Banham.The group's net debt at the end of June stood £125.6m lower at £513.8m than it was at the end of March.Banham said the Environmental Technologies Division continued to perform well with sales in the quarter up 14% on a year earlier at £414m, with a similar improvement in operating profit.The Precious Metals Division grew sales by 6% from a year earlier to £150m but the increase in operating profit was "substantially higher" thanks to operating leverage and a change in the product mix.The Fine Chemicals division saw sales rise 15% to £70m, promoting "good growth" in operating profit. "The outlook for the second quarter of 2011/12 is good and as a result the group's performance in the first half of the year is expected to be significantly ahead of the same period in 2010/11. We currently anticipate that our good start to 2011/12 will be maintained throughout the year," Banham said.--jh