Synthomer weathers currency headwinds to post 14% rise in profits
Chemicals firm Synthomer posted a first half pre-tax profit of £51.4m, up 14% from the first half of last year.
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The company said the performance was strong given significant exchange rate headwinds, and warned its full year result could suffer if conditions continued.
The latex maker posted first half sales down by 8.1% to £468.7m from £510.1m, and attributed this to the a weak euro against the pound and lower raw material unit costs associated with crude oil impact.
The company posted earnings per share up 14.9% to 11.6p from 10.1p, and declared an interim dividend of 3.2p, from 3p year before.
“Synthomer is seeing the benefits of increased capital expenditure, targeted innovation and fixed cost reduction initiatives of recent years, supported by an improved supply/demand position particularly in Asia,” the company said in a statement.
Chief executive officer Calum MacLean said there had been good progress in construction & coatings, functional polymers and foam markets, compensating for challenging paper and carpet markets.