Molins warns on FY trading expectations, halves interim dividend

It swung to a half-year pretax loss of £0.3m, from a profit of £0.4m. Dividend was pruned to 1.25p a share, from 2.5p. Continuing-operations sales were £35.0m, from £39.5m.

"The group's results for the first half of the year are lower than in the same period last year but are in line with management expectations, with tough trading conditions impacting both divisions," Molins said.

"Low demand for new cigarette-making capacity affected the Instrumentation & Tobacco Machinery division, and the Packaging Machinery division continues to experience delays in customers' investment decisions, although encouragingly sales of aftermarket products across the Group increased," it said in a statement.

Molins added that, as in previous years, its full-year trading performance would be heavily weighted towards the second half.

"However we are experiencing continuing delays in receiving orders and are therefore taking a more cautious view of the short-term trading outlook, such that the Board has revised downwards its trading expectations for the current year."

At about 12:07 BST, shares in Molins were down 13.01% to 53.5p.