Halma eyes acquisitions as profits remain on target
Health and safety technology group Halma anticipates that full year pre-tax profit to be in line with expectations as it eyes potential acquisitions.
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In a pre-close statement, the FTSE 250 company said it expects adjusted pre-tax profit before tax for the year ending 1 April to be in line with expectations between £183.7m to £199.4m with a consensus forecast of £191.4m.
This was was driven by organic constant currency revenue and profit growth in all major geographic regions.
In the second half of the year, all four of its segments have traded in line with the expectations. The Process Safety sector achieved revenue and profit growth, the Environmental and Analysis sector delivered higher profitability following the Pixelteq reorganisation in the first half of the year, while the Infrastructure Safety and Medical sectors received strong contributions from acquisitions completed the previous year.
Halma is eyeing further acquisitions, as last month it said it will buy US-based multi-spectral imaging provider FluxData for $12m and an earn-out of up to $15.5m for growth to March 2019.
It also that its financial position remains strong as it increased its revolving credit facility last November to £550m from £360m for five years to 2021 and carried out a US private placement drawn down in January which generated $250m.
Separately, the company announced that PricewaterhouseCoopers will be the auditor next financial year ending 31 March 2018, subject to shareholder approval at the next meeting, following a review by the Audit Committee. Its current auditor Deloitte will audit the results for this financial year.