Halma pre-tax profits up

Halma, the safety, health and environmental technology group, saw its pre-tax profit from £49.3m to £57.5m for the six months ended 1 October.

Revenue rose from £249.1m to £280m, leading to adjusted profit before tax of £57.5m, up from £49.3m for the same period a year ago.

Order intake was slightly ahead of revenue with a closing order book 5% higher than the start of the period, while organic revenue growth was 4.7% (5.8% at constant currency).

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

In health and analysis, revenue was up 17% to £121m compared to £104m the same period a year ago, leading to a 26% rise in profit to £28m from £22.1m.

Infrastructure Sensors saw a 5% growth in revenue leading to an 8% rise in profit from £17.9m to £19.4m. Elevator Safety had flat revenue and Security Sensors reported revenue marginally lower than last year with tough conditions in Europe and the USA for both businesses.

Meanwhile, industrial safety performed well seeing a 17% increase in revenue to £58m from £49m and profits of £13.6m, up 20% from £11.3m

Andrew Williams, chief executive of Halma, said: "Although there are significant global economic uncertainties, our structure of decentralised management and the underpinning of demand from fundamental growth drivers have proved to be resilient in difficult markets. Halma remains on track to make further progress in the second half."

The firm increased the interim dividend by 7% to 3.79p per share, while cash volumes remained stable, rising slightly from £40.69m to £41.67m.

The share price fell 0.91% to 315.3p by 11:10.

NR