Trifast shares surge on relatively rosy update

Trifast issued an unaudited trading update ahead of its half-year results for the six months to 30 September on Tuesday, with the results scheduled to be announced on 8 November.

The London-listed firm said business remained “solidly on track” in terms of organic growth performance and capital investment objectives, despite widespread general economic concerns arising from Brexit.

“Three months on since the EU Referendum, we are pleased to report that the positive trend dynamics for TR have been reassuringly sustained resulting in our business units across the group experiencing continued good organic growth on a constant currency basis,” the board said in a statement.

“Consequently, this trend is enabling us to boost our ongoing global investment objectives covering the specific areas of people, skills training, production and automated quality inspection equipment.”

At the end of the half-year period, the company said it also settled the deferred consideration payment of €1.7m due to the owners of Kuhlmann Befestigungselemente, which it acquired on 1 October 2015.

“Meanwhile, we maintain our constant search for suitable, well managed 'bolt-on' profitable acquisitions that, like our most recent acquisitions immediately add value to our global strategy.

“While our strict target criteria continues to limit choice, it considerably mitigates risk,” the board explained.

It said that more half of group revenue was currently derived from outside the UK, with foreign exchange movements clearly impacting reported financial results.

“During the first half of the current financial year we have benefitted from a tailwind from the weakness of sterling.

“Finally, to meet the geographic presence required to satisfy key customer demand we are pleased to announce that this month we have expanded our European presence, opening a greenfield distribution and technical centre in Barcelona, Spain.”

Trifast’s board said that operation's initial focus was on the burgeoning Tier 1 automotive, a sector it considers an important growth driver for TR.

“We remain confident in our future prospects as we continue to execute our strategy and look forward to updating shareholders further on our performance in November.”

At 1202 BST, shares in Trifast were up 7.53% to 167.75.