Synthomer trades broadly in line with expectations in Q3

Chemicals business Synthomer said on Thursday that overall Q3 trading was broadly in line with internal expectations as continuing group volumes improved from historically low levels.

Synthomer said the improvement in activity levels was led by its adhesive solutions and health & protection and performance materials divisions, which recovered from some of the "substantial declines" experienced in the prior year.

The FTSE 250-listed group also said Q324 continuing group underlying earnings were higher than the prior year period, principally reflecting the ongoing delivery of its multi-year cost saving and reliability improvement programmes and higher capacity utilisation, partially offset by previously disclosed operating cost increases.

Synthomer added that it expects to make "some earnings progress" on a continuing group basis, adjusting for its divested compounds business, and to be modestly free cash flow positive in 2024, despite the absence of a broad-based macroeconomic demand improvement.

Chief executive Michael Willome said: "Despite decidedly mixed demand conditions in our end markets during the third quarter, we remain on track to deliver underlying earnings progress going forward, driven mainly by our multi-year self-help programmes. We continue to strategically reposition the business to deliver our medium-term ambitions by focusing on our core businesses, enhancing our operating leverage and relentlessly allocating our capital and other resources towards optimum value creation."

As of 1000 GMT, Synthomer shares were up 5.67% at 182.60p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com