Senior doubles interim dividend

Senior posted a big jump in sales and profits for the first half of the year and announced that it would double its interim dividend.

For the half, the engineering group reported a 16% jump in revenues to £482.3m at constant currencies, while operating profits were 28% higher at £20.8m.

The manufacturer's performance was even better at current exchange rates with revenues and operating profits strengthening by 20% and 35%, respectively.

At current exchange rates, profit before tax was ahead by 22% at £13.5m and basic earnings per share by 15% to 2.80p.

Noteworthy was a doubling in the company's adjusted profit before tax to £17.6m.

Furthermore, its book-to-bill ratio stood at 1.20 at period end with integration of the Spencer acquisition said to be progressing "well" with sales up by half versus the year earlier period.

Free cash flow on the other hand worsened by -161% to -£11.8m.

And at period end Senior's net debt, excluding capitalised leases, had increased by £19m to £119.4m or 1.6 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.

Management maintained its outlook for "strong" full-year growth.

The interim dividend per share meanwhile was doubled to 0.60p per share.

At 0849 BST, the company's shares were trading off by 2.0% to 167.0p.