Spirax Group H1 results fall short of expectations

Industrial and commercial steam system products manufacturer Spirax Group fell short of market expectations with its first-half performance but said on Thursday that H2 would be stronger.

Spirax said statutory revenues fell 3% year-on-year to £850.8m in the six months ended 30 June due to a "weak macroeconomic environment" in some of its key markets and strong currency headwinds.

Pre-tax profits rose 9% to £124.8m on a statutory basis as operating profit margins improved 230 basis points to 17.8%. Statutory basic earnings per share were up 10% at 123.8p.

However, adjusted pre-tax profits were down 10% at £137.9m and adjusted basic earnings per share shed 12% to 137.2p.

Chief executive Nimesh Patel said: "Against the backdrop of a weak macroeconomic environment in some of our key markets and a strong currency headwind, first half results were slightly below our expectations. We expect stronger growth in the second half, supported by higher IP, ongoing operational improvement in ETS and cost discipline. While we have seen early signs of improving Biopharm demand, we do not anticipate a meaningful recovery until late 2024."

As of 0840 BST, Spirax shares were down 7.03% at 7,935.00p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com