Renishaw lowers FY guidance due to lockdowns

Engineering firm Renishaw lowered its annual profit forecasts on Tuesday as a result of a coronavirus-fuelled downturn in sales across the automotive and aerospace sectors.

Renishaw said it now expects adjusted pre-tax profits to come in between £45m-55m for the full-year, down from the £50m-70m previously forecast. while revenues for the nine months ended 31 March dropped 9.6% to £389.9m.

Full-year revenues were projected to be between £490m and £505m, also a marked decrease on the £574m brought in by the group a year earlier.

In addition to interruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Renishaw also cautioned of decreased demand for its machine-tool products and uncertainties stemming from the Sino-US trade spat.

However, Renishaw added that it had witnessed a "good recovery" in China but warned that the impact of the pandemic in Europe, Middle East and Africa would be felt later in the year.

Renishaw said: "Given the uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, we expect very challenging market conditions, particularly in the automotive and aerospace sectors, in the coming periods.

"However, despite subdued demand conditions overall, we have seen growth in our optical and laser encoder product lines due to a recovery in the semiconductor market."

As of 0840 BST, Renishaw shares were up 1.96% at 3,850p.