Smiths Group reports strong start to FY 2023

Smiths Group reported a strong start to the new financial year and sounded a confident note on its full-year outlook for sales.

Nevertheless, the engineering group said that the strong business momentum was balanced by the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, supply challenges and more difficult comparators for the remainder of the year.

"We are pleased with our strong start to the fiscal year, building on a successful FY22 and maintain guidance of 4-4.5% organic revenue growth with moderate margin improvement for FY23," the engineering group's chief executive officer, Paul Keel said.

Revenues for the three months to October were up by 13.2% on an organic basis.

However, while order growth at its John Crane unit was described as "strong", continued supplier shortages were impacting revenue conversion, the company said in a statement.

Smiths Detection meanwhile saw solid growth in both Aviation and Other Security Systems with the positive start to the financial year reinforcing guidance for a return to full-year growth.

The company also reported strong growth in aerospace and construction but said it was expected to moderate over the remainder of FY 2023.

Growth was also seen moderating at Smiths Interconnect, offset by continued growth in satellite communications.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com