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Vesuvius PLC shares slumped on Thursday, as it warned an end market recovery will now only materialise next year. Shares in the London-based molten metal flow engineering firm were down 8.7% to 441.50 pence each in London on late Thursday morning. Revenue in the first half of 2024 fell 5.9% on-year to £936.5 million from £995.3 million a year prior. Pretax profit fell 19% to £76.7 million from £94.7 million. Vesuvius noted that end markets weaker than anticipated in the period. Chief Executive Patrick Andre explained: ‘Our end markets remained subdued during the first half with, in particular, significant weakness in Foundry. Despite these unfavourable market conditions, the Steel Division achieved a good performance, demonstrating the strength of its business model with continued market share gains in Flow Control and positive net pricing performance overall. In the Foundry Division however, good performances in market share gains, pricing management and cost reductions could not offset the negative impact of volume reduction due to market conditions.’ It raised its dividend by 4.4% to 7.1 pence per share from 6.8p. The company said that this reflects ‘confidence in the business.’ Looking ahead, Vesuvius issued a profit warning. ‘We no longer expect a significant improvement in our end markets in the second half, with most external forecasts predicting end market recovery being postponed to 2025. Accordingly, we now expect our full year headline trading profit for the year to be only slightly ahead of last year on a constant currency basis,’ it cautioned. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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