Asset sales help lift Morgan Advanced Materials profits

Revenue rose 1.4% on a constant currency basis to £1.02bn and the dividend was held at 11p a share.

Morgan completed two divestments during the term which “materially simplified the global business units as a result”, the company said.

“Through these divestments we have exited businesses where we were sub-scale and where there was limited synergy with the remainder of the group. We have sharpened the focus on the core business and reduced overhead costs.”

“We received proceeds of £79.5m from the sale and have used that to reduce our net debt position, creating funds for reinvestment in the business in due course.”Headline operating profit, which excluded the sale gains, rose 2.4% to £119.7m

Chief executive Peter Raby said the return to organic growth was due to the early benefits of strategy implementation and improving market conditions.

“Strategy implementation is progressing well with further investment in research and development and sales completed in the year, and capability development ongoing across the group.”

“We are on track to meet our goal of growing in line with our markets in 2019, and expect to grow at closer to our market rates in 2018,” he added.