Smith & Nephew sticks to full year outlook despite profit fall

1st Aug 2013 07:36

Smith & Nephew suffered a fall in quarterly profits after its hip and knee replacement business battled with a series of headwinds.But it stuck to its full-year outlook following an excellent quarter from its advance would management business and it predicted a pick up in the performance of its orthopaedic reconstruction business in the second half. The medical devices business reported revenues inched up to $1.07bn in the second quarter of 2013 from $1.03bn. Pre-tax profits fell sharply to $188m from $457m last year when number were boosted by profits on disposals.Revenues at its hip and knee implant franchises were down 1.0%.The company said: "This orthopaedic reconstruction performance continues to be impacted by our position in the product cycle versus our peers, our relatively high exposure to the weak European market and metal-on-metal headwinds."It has taken steps to arrest the poor performance of these businesses by investing more in marketing including a direct-to-consumer TV advertising campaign in US.Smith & Nephew lifted its interim dividend to 10.4 cents from 9.9 cents. TB