Halma lifts dividend as it hails record FY revenues

Halma posted a dip in full-year pre-tax profit on Thursday, but lifted its dividend as revenues jumped 21%.

In the 12 months to the end of March, statutory pre-tax profit declined 4% to £291.5m, mainly due to the non-recurrence of a gain on disposal of a Safety Sector business in the prior year. Adjusted pre-tax profit was up 14% to £361.3m.

Revenues rose 21% to a record £1.85bn, with broad-based growth in all sectors and regions. Halma upped its full-year dividend by 7% to 20.20p a share.

Chief executive Marc Ronchetti said: "This performance was supported by strong and broadly-based demand for our products and services, and enabled by our Sustainable Growth Model which gives our companies considerable autonomy and agility, allowing them to respond quickly to new growth opportunities and to act rapidly to address operational challenges when they arise.

"At the same time, we were able to make substantial investments, of over half a billion pounds in aggregate, to support our future growth. These included record levels of expenditure on research and development, technology infrastructure, and acquisitions to expand our market opportunities."