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Essentra PLC on Tuesday announced the upcoming retirement of Chief Financial Officer Jack Clarke, and said it expects to deliver medium-term targets despite mixed annual earnings. The stock traded 5.7% lower at 163.80 pence on Tuesday morning in London. The Oxford, England-based components company reported a £8.4 million pretax profit for 2023, compared with a £29.1 million loss in 2022. Revenue, however, decreased 6.4%, or 4.4% at constant currency, to £316.3 million from £337.9 million. Essentra said organic sales fell 8.2%, ‘reflecting wider macro-environment trends’, although revenue from its acquisitions of Wixroyd Group and BMP srl ‘partly offset’ the reduction. ‘2023 saw the delivery of Essentra’s first year as a pure-play components business,’ said Chief Executive Scott Fawcett. ‘The group navigated challenges within the external demand environment, and achieved a resilient financial and operational performance.’ Essentra declared a final dividend of 2.4p per share, up from 1.0p the prior year. This raises the total dividend for 2023 by 9.1% to 3.6p from 3.3p. Essentra said trading so far in 2024 has met its expectations, and that it ‘is well positioned in 2024 to benefit from a recovery in our end markets’ with volume improvements anticipated in the second half of the year. ‘Management remains confident that Essentra’s robust and differentiated business model will support further progress towards its medium-term targets in 2024,’ the company added. Also on Tuesday, Essentra said that CFO Jack Clarke intends to retire soon. Clarke will remain in his role until a successor is appointed ‘to ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities’. Essentra expects him to leave by March 31, 2025 at the latest, and has commenced an internal and external search for potential replacements. Essentra noted that since joining as CFO in April 2022, Clarke ‘has completed the strategic reviews and transitional arrangements that led to the successful sale of the company’s Packaging and Filters businesses, and the subsequent launch of Essentra as a pure-play Components business’. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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