"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/

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius, the molten metal flow engineering company, increased its underlying revenue by 12.5% to £1,683.9m in 2017.

The company's underlying trading profit rose by 16.1% to £165.5m, with the return on sales up 30 basis points to 9.8%.

The group benefitted from a 5.3% increase in global steel production up 5.3% in 2017.

However, steel production growth in the world excluding China was supported by a significant decrease in Chinese steel exports, which may not repeat in 2018.

Performance in China was particularly strong, with 9.2% underlying revenue growth. The company benefitted from the trend in China towards higher quality steel requiring higher quality products and value creating solutions.

In the relatively mature regions of Europe and the US, the company achieved revenue growth of 7.6% and 8%, respectively. This outperformance was supported by increased penetration of its value-creating solutions; new product launches, especially in Foundry; and an increased focus on strategic customers.

Restructuring savings of £16.2m were achieved in 2017 and total targeted savings from the existing restructuring programme, mainly in Flow Control, increased from £55m to £60m.

Vesuvius has launched a new restructuring programme targeting £15m of annual savings by 2020 in its other businesses.

The full year dividend has been increased by 8.8% to 18 pence per share.

Investec today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 650p (from 580p).

Morgan Stanley today reaffirms its equal weight investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 660p (from 610p).

HSBC today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and set its price target at 675p.

StockMarketWire.com
Vesuvius, the molten metal flow engineering company, exceeded its trading expectations in the first quarter thanks to positive market conditions and good progress in addressing the temporary headwinds it faced in 2017.

The board expects trading for the full year to be marginally above previous guidance, despite a foreign exchange headwind.

In the first quarter, the group benefitted from continued growth in steel production, which has increased 2.8% year-on-year in the world excluding China and 4.1% including China. In Foundry, the market environment remains positive across the majority of markets.

Vesuvius' sales volume growth has continued to outperform underlying market growth.

For raw materials, the group's price pass through has been implemented and the headwind addressed. Flow Control's European production has been ramped up and met the increased demand experienced in Q1 2018.

The net impact of exchange rates has been a Q1 2018 headwind of approximately £1.6m, the main driver being a 7.9% strengthening in Sterling against the US Dollar. All things being equal, if month end March 2018 rates were to persist for the remainder of the year, this would impact the 2018 trading profit by approximately 4.7%.

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its overweight investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 760p (from 745p)

Jefferies International today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) and raised its price target to 740p (from 725p).

HY Results : http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=6066828

Patrick André, Chief Executive of Vesuvius, commented:
"We had a strong H1 2018, delivering our best half year revenue, trading profit and return on sales since we became an independent company in 2012. We continued to outperform underlying markets thanks to the growth in demand for our value-creating solutions, supported by our increasing investment in R&D. We are cautiously optimistic regarding H2 2018 performance as the environment in our key end markets remains positive. This strength in underlying markets and our continuing implementation of self-help measures underpins our confidence that our full year trading profit (EBITA) will be marginally above the current consensus market expectation of c.£189m(1). Looking beyond 2018, we believe in our ability to deliver further organic improvement in our profit margins as we implement our strategy and deliver on our restructuring programmes."

Berenberg today initiates coverage of Vesuvius (LON:VSVS) with a hold investment rating and price target of 660p.

StockMarketWire.com
Molten metal flow engineering group Vesuvius warned that unfavorable currency movements would impact its full-year profit.

The impact of exchange-rate movements during 2018 had increased since the company's first-half results, due primarily to further currency depreciation in developing markets.

'Without this increased foreign exchange headwind our expectations for full year trading profit would have been approximately 5% higher,' the company said.

Still, Vesuvius said it expected its full-year Ebita to be in-line with current consensus market expectations, even after taking FX headwinds into account.

'We continue to deliver a strong performance across all business units and regions of the world,' the company said.