Spirax-Sarco sees decent growth ahead of 'tougher' second half

8th Aug 2018 07:30

(Sharecast News) - Spirax-Sarco Engineering revenue jumped 28% to £547.6m, according to its half-year results on Wednesday, with organic growth for the six months ended 30 June put at 7%.The FTSE 250 company said its adjusted operating profit was ahead 24% to £125.7m or 15% higher on organic terms, while its adjusted operating profit margin fell 60 basis points to 23%.Organically, that margin surged 170 basis points.Adjusted profit before tax improved by 22% to £120.6m, with adjusted basic earnings per share up 25% at 119.2p.Spirax-Sarco said adjusted cash conversion fell to 75% from 84%.Its board declared a dividend per share of 29p, an improvement of 14% year-on-year from the 25.5p paid at the interim last year."We have seen strong organic sales growth in both the Steam Specialties division and Watson-Marlow, reflecting the benefits of the successful implementation of our strategy," said Spirax-Sarco chief executive Nicholas Anderson."In addition, integration of the two significant acquisitions we made in 2017, Gestra and Chromalox, is progressing to schedule and their overall performance continues to be in line with our acquisition plans."Anderson said the strong first half organic sales growth was in line with the board's expectations, and for the second half, he claimed comparisons with the prior year would be tougher."Overall, our full-year expectations remain unchanged."