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Halma PLC on Thursday raised guidance after making ‘excellent progress’ in the first half of its financial year with growth broadly spread across all sectors and regions. In response, shares in the Amersham, England-based safety products manufacturer shot up 10% to 3,646.40 pence each in London on Thursday morning. It was the best performer in the FTSE 100 which is up 0.7%. Halma said pretax profit jumped 39% to £241.8 million in the six months to September from £174.0 million the year prior, on revenue that increased 15% to £1.24 billion from £1.07 billion, or by 18% on an organic basis. Adjusted pretax profit climbed 29% to £270.5 million from £209.2 million. Earnings per share grew 37% to 49.44 pence from 36.08p, or by 29% to 55.32p from 43.01p on an adjusted basis. Chief Executive Marc Ronchetti said Halma made ‘excellent progress in the first half’ delivering record revenue and profit. Organic revenue growth was broadly spread across all sectors and regions and additionally benefited from further premium growth in photonics within the Environmental & Analysis sector, Halma said. By region, Halma noted a very strong performance in the US, and good organic growth in all other regions. CEO Ronchetti said the ‘strength and breadth of our first half performance and our current expectations for the remainder of the year support a further upgrade to our guidance.’ ‘We have made a good start to the second half of the year. Our companies continue to experience varied conditions in their end markets and the economic and geopolitical environment remains uncertain,’ Halma said. Halma now expects mid-teens organic constant currency revenue growth for the full year, upped from its previous aim of a low double digit rise. An adjusted earnings before interest and tax margin of around 22%, excluding one-off profit in the first half, is now forecast. It had previously predicted an adjusted Ebit ‘modestly above’ the middle of a 19% to 23% target range. The firm said the raised outlook is supported by order intake, which remains ahead of both revenue in the year to date and the comparable period last year. Halma upped its interim dividend by 7.0% to 9.63 pence per share from 9.00p. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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