Halma full-year profit jumps 17%

Health and safety technology group Halma posted a jump in full-year revenue and profit, thanks in part to acquisitions.

For the year ended 1 April, adjusted pre-tax profit rose 17% to £194m on revenue of £961.7m, up 19%. On an organic constant currency basis, revenue and profit grew 4% and the company said revenue saw a 10% favourable impact from currency. Meanwhile, the dividend was lifted 7% to 8.38p, giving a total dividend for the year of 13.71p from 12.81p the year before.

Halma ended the year with net debt of £196m, down from £247m after spending £10m on current year acquisitions.

The company highlighted revenue and profit growth in all four sectors and in all major regions, with strong growth in the USA, mainland Europe and Asia Pacific, and solid progress in the UK.

In addition, it said the acquisition pipeline benefited from greater depth and breadth in M&A resources across all four sectors.

Chief executive Andrew Williams said: "Halma performed strongly over the past year, achieving its fourteenth consecutive year of record revenue and profit. We have a clear growth strategy, simple financial model and a unique organisational structure, which is customer-focused and enables us to adapt quickly to market changes.

"We have exciting opportunities for growth in a diverse range of markets. Since the period end, order intake has continued to be ahead of revenue and order intake last year. We expect to make further progress in the year ahead in line with our expectations."

At 0910 BST, the shares were down 1.4% to 1,124p.