"Vesuvius is a global leader in metal flow engineering, developing, manufacturing and marketing mission-critical ceramic consumable products and systems to demanding applications, primarily in the global steel and foundry industries. Vesuvius also supplies fabricated precious metals to the jewellery industry in Europe and has significant precious metals recycling operations."

Both Vesuvius Plc & Alent Plc are seperate companies created from the demerger of Cookson Plc in Dec 2012.

http://www.vesuvius.com/en/

JP Morgan Cazenove cuts Vesuvius to neutral from overweight, target cut from 531p to 510p.

Credit Suisse reiterates underperform on Vesuvius, target cut from 460p to 435p.

Vesuvius plc, a global leader in molten metal flow engineering, announces its results for the six months ended 30 June 2015.

Business summary
· Lower revenues and profits driven by a decline in global steel production and inventory volumes
· Cash conversion ratio of 84%
· Return on sales increased to 10% as a result of management actions to improve productivity and reduce cost
· Underlying increase in profitability in the Foundry division of 165 basis points driven by new management actions
· Strong balance sheet, with long-term bank facilities in place to 2022. Net debt of £296m reflects acquisition of Sidermes
· Interim dividend up 3% to 5.15 pence per share (H1 2014: 5.00 pence) to be paid on 25 September 2015
· Continued improvement in profitability from self-help initiatives
· Restructuring programme commenced to address structural changes in end markets

Strategic progress
· Delivery of margin improvement continues
· Revenue up year-on-year in Asia-Pacific in all businesses despite adverse trading conditions
· Outperformance in China and India - strategically important markets for long-term growth
· Continued focus on products and services where value-add is rewarded
· Sidermes acquisition expands our Technical Services offering - an important medium-term growth opportunity

François Wanecq, Chief Executive of Vesuvius, commented:
"In recent months, we have seen challenging end markets with a global decline in crude steel production, particularly in the US, our largest market. Against this backdrop, Vesuvius has made further strategic and operational progress. We are pleased to report revenue and margin progression in the major long-term markets of China and India and further progress in building our Technical Services business.

As a consequence of the structural change in our end markets, we have commenced a global restructuring programme and have currently identified actions which will result in a total charge of around £20m in 2015 and 2016 with full year cost savings in excess of £10m in 2017. Some early benefits from this programme are expected to be seen this year, and as a result, we remain confident that performance will be broadly in line with market expectations for the full year.

This programme is designed to better align our group with our end markets and capitalise on the further growth of our addressable markets as outlined at our Capital Markets Day in June."

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its overweight investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and cut its price target to 323p (from 370p).

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius saw its FY pretax profit sink to GBP77.4m, from GBP111.2m. Revenue improved to GBP1.32bn, from GBP1.44bn. Dividend was 16.275p a share, from 16.125p.

CEO Francois Wanecq commented:
"These results reflect the substantial headwinds that we have faced in our key end-markets of steel and foundry.

"We have been able to minimise the impact on our margins due to a continued focus on self-help measures and our substantial restructuring programme launched in response to the permanent structural changes in the end-markets.

"We expect the underlying trading environment in the current year to be broadly similar to that experienced in the second half of 2015 and have initiated a further cost reduction plan, which, together with the actions already taken will deliver full year savings of £20m towards the end of 2017, an increase of £10m over the savings already announced.

"Despite the current challenges, our strategy for longer-term profitable growth remains unchanged and, in this context, we have made encouraging progress in 2015, strengthening our competitive position in the strategically important markets of China, India and South America through increasing penetration of our value added products, and continuing to develop our Technical Services offering."

JP Morgan Cazenove today downgrades its investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) to neutral (from overweight) and cut its price target to 310p (from 323p).

Jefferies International today downgrades its investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) to underperform (from hold) and cut its price target to 255p (from 300p).

I bought some more this morning around 9:00. I'm sure Jefferies are well intentioned.

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius anticipates its trading performance, supported by the ongoing benefit of its restructuring actions, will be in line with current expectations for the full year.

Even this early in the year, it sees its underlying trading environment to remain similar to that experienced in H2 2015.

"We remain confident in our ability to capitalise on any recovery in our addressable markets in the medium term," the company said in a statement.

"Overall market conditions remain unchanged since we announced our 2015 Full Year Results at the beginning of March with lower year-on-year global steel production and mixed end markets in our Foundry Division.

"We continue to make good progress with our self-help and restructuring actions as evidenced by the decision in April to close the Flow Control plant in Ostrawa, Czech Republic.

"As communicated at the beginning of March, restructuring will deliver benefits of £20m per annum by the end of 2017."

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius' H1 pretax profit has slipped to £38.2m, from £51.4m, as revenue eased to £668.3m, from £702.6m. Interim dividend was 5.15p, unchanged on the year. Its FY outlook remains unchanged.

CEO Francois Wanecq commented:
"We have delivered an encouraging result in the first half of 2016, with an improvement in financial performance relative to the second half of 2015.

"This reflects the strength of our market position and progress in implementing our self-help initiatives and ongoing restructuring programme.

"Our end markets in steel and foundry are showing signs of stabilisation, although we expect them to remain at relatively weak levels for the remainder of the year.

"Based on our strategic and operational progress in the first half, and assuming current exchange rates continue for the rest of the year, our full year expectations remain unchanged.

"We remain confident in our ability to capitalise on any recovery in our addressable markets in the medium term."

Third Quarter 2016 Trading Update
Vesuvius plc, a global leader in molten metal flow engineering, releases the following Trading Update covering trading in the period from 1 July to 30 September 2016.

SUMMARY
Since the announcement of our half year results in July and as anticipated, end markets have remained subdued overall. We expect this to continue for the balance of the year. However, the delivery of self-help and restructuring measures will continue to benefit profit margins, and we have further increased our 2017 annualised savings target. As set out below, recent and current foreign exchange trends are having a beneficial impact on trading profit.

TRADING
Since the announcement of our 2016 Half Year results in July, steel markets have remained relatively flat with the latest World Steel Association global production statistics (ex China) showing a decline of 1.5% versus last year. This is being partly mitigated by growth in India on the back of good domestic demand and growth in exports. Foundry markets remain mixed with auto and heavy truck sales varying by region while other foundry sectors such as agriculture, mining and rail remain challenging. In total, excluding the impact of foreign exchange movements, Group sales year to date remain in line with our expectations.

RESTRUCTURING
Ongoing progress is being made in the delivery of the previously stated restructuring programme with the recent announcement of two plant closures at Avezzano and Cagliari in Italy. These and the other restructuring measures previously announced lead us to increase our annualised savings target by £5m to £30m by the end of 2017 at a cost of £40m (previously £35m).

FOREIGN EXCHANGE
The Group's results have benefited from a foreign exchange tailwind during 2016 with most global currencies strengthening against Sterling between December 2015 and September 2016. In particular, there has been a significant movement since June as a result of the UK's decision to leave the EU. Average exchange rates of Sterling to US Dollar and Euro have fallen by 8.8% and 9.3%, respectively, between FY 2015 and 2016 YTD. This has provided a trading profit benefit of approximately £7m year to date. Assuming current foreign exchange rates continue, the estimated benefit would increase to £11m for the full year.

EFFECTIVE TAX RATE
During the year, the regional mix of where we earn profits has shifted away from lower rate to higher rate tax regimes. This is expected to result in our full year effective tax rate increasing to around 28% (previously 25.5%).

FINANCIAL POSITION
We have continued to generate strong cash flows during the quarter although the positive impact this should have had on net debt has been offset by the ongoing translation impact of a weaker Sterling to both the US Dollar and Euro. We are continuing to focus on tight working capital management in order to release cash.

Peel Hunt today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 480p (from 410p).

It just can't keep it's head above 400 for any length of time. I suspect Artisan to continue to offload as they appear to be doing on any number of stocks into this rally.

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius has turned in an improved FY pretax profit of £79.4m, from £77.4m, after a resilient performance for the 12-month period.

Revenue was £1.4bn, from £1.3bn. Dividend was 16.55p, from 16.275p.

"We delivered an encouraging set of results in 2016 in challenging market conditions and made important progress towards our strategic and operating objectives, in particular, growth in return on sales as a result of the restructuring programme," said CEO Francois Wanecq.

"Our resilience reflects the strength of our customer relationships, built on our proven ability to offer innovation, reliability and efficiency."

He added that whilst the trading environment remained broadly stable, Vesuvius had seen early signs of improvement in 2017.

"Following our cost improvement efforts, we are well positioned to benefit from any recovery in demand and we will continue to focus on creating value for our customers and shareholders alike.

"We remain confident of making further progress, both in the near and longer term."

Up 20% today. Sadly sold most of mine before the results for what was a pleasing profit. Last lot sold today at 519 and time for me to find the next opportunity

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius said that whilst it is still early in the year, and recognising the inherent uncertainty in predicting end market resilience, its expectations for 2017 trading performance are cautiously optimistic.

"At our year-end results in early March, we highlighted encouraging early signs of improvement in the global market environment," the company said.

It added that this trend had continued since then across Vesuvius' major regions, resulting in delivery of a strong Q1 2017 in comparison to a relatively weak Q1 2016.

Vesuvius had benefited in Q1 2017 from the 5.7% year-on-year growth in global steel production, as reported by the World Steel Association.

"However, this Q1 2017 increase in global steel production is off the relatively low base of Q1 2016 and full year 2017 growth expectations for the market are materially lower than this figure.

"In Foundry, the market environment remains mixed with light vehicles slowing in the USA and static in the rest of the world. Heavy truck and mining sales are showing slight signs of recovery but this varies by region."

Vesuvius said it continued to make progress in the delivery of its restructuring program.

"The total targeted annual savings now stand at £40m, up from £35m, whilst associated costs remain unchanged at £45m. We continue to assess restructuring opportunities across our businesses which could potentially yield further savings in the future," the company said.

"All things being equal, based on the average exchange rates in Q1 2017, and were current spot foreign exchange rates to persist for the remainder of 2017, this would have increased our 2016 Trading Profit by approximately 7%."

Peel Hunt today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 740p (from 700p).

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its overweight investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 730p (from 710p).

Barclays Capital today initiates coverage of Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) with a underweight investment rating and price target of 500p.

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius, the molten metal flow engineering company, has raised €100 million in a US private placement.

The new US private placement notes, which carry a fixed rate of interest, were issued in two series: €50 million at 1.90% maturing in December 2027; and €50 million at 2.12% maturing in December 2029.

The notes will be used for repayment of existing indebtedness, primarily the US$110m, 4.26% coupon, US private placement maturing on 16 December 2017.

Vesuvius' annual interest costs will decline by approximately £1.8m as a result of this refinancing and the weighted average maturity of its committed debt facilities now stands at approximately six years, versus approximately four years at year-end 2016.