By Joe Hoppe
Halma said pretax profit rose as it benefited from revenue growth in all sectors and a healthy contribution from recent acquisitions, and backed market expectations for full-year profit.
The safety, health and environmental-technology company said Thursday that pretax profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 was 150.2 million pounds ($186.5 million) compared with GBP145.5 million a year earlier and a company compiled market forecast of GBP146.8 million. The company said acquisitions contributed 5.2% to growth, more than offsetting a negative effect from currency headwinds, and a slip in return on sales to 18.7% from 19.6%.
Chief Executive Marc Ronchetti said the result was pleasing, given the company had delivered both a strong operating performance and maintained a strong balance sheet, while making substantial investments in future growth. The company was on track to deliver further growth in the second half of the year, Ronchetti said to Dow Jones Newswires.
Revenue was GBP950.5 million compared with GBP875.5 million a year prior, with growth in all sectors and markets except Asia-Pacific, mainly reflecting weaker China trends and offsetting a solid performance in Australasia. China represents 5% of group revenue, and performance there had been mixed, with its Safety business performing well on increased industrial activity post-lockdown but weaker Healthcare and Environmental and Analysis performance, particularly in the spectroscopy market and Life Sciences demand.
“China has been weak recently, but we’re in the country for the long-term,” Chief Financial Officer Steve Gunning said to Dow Jones. “We have seen some green shoots of growth… and we see the country as an excellent growth opportunity.”
The board declared an interim dividend of 8.41 pence a share, from 7.86 pence a year earlier.
Halma said it expects to deliver good organic constant-currency revenue growth for the year to March, and for full-year adjusted pretax profit to meet market expectations, which it provided as a consensus of GBP389.0 million. For fiscal 2023, it reported an adjusted pretax profit of GBP361.3 million. It further added it has a healthy pipeline of potential acquisitions.
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