Weir raises expectations

2nd Aug 2011 07:13

High-flying Scottish engineering company Weir Group is set for an even better year than it previously expected, as new orders streamed in during the first half of the year.Order input shot up 43% to £1,225m in the first half of 2011 from £859m in the corresponding period of 2010. Revenue grew 33% to £1,031m from £775m the year before while underlying profit before tax climbed 24% to £178m from £144m last year.Net debt broadened to £289m at 1 July from £284m a year earlier."The Weir Group has delivered another positive set of results, with revenue and profit growth and record orders. Strong order trends in our Minerals division, as well as an excellent performance from our upstream oil and gas operations demonstrate our ability to serve market needs by executing effectively on our strategic growth agenda," claimed Keith Cochrane, Weir's chief executive."The group will continue to invest to grow ahead of our end markets and we now expect profits for the full year to be somewhat ahead of our previous expectations," Cochrane added.The interim dividend has been upped to 7.2p from 6.0p last year. --jh