Rotork firing on all cylinders

Last year was a record breaking year in many fronts for Rotork with the valve engineering group setting new highs for revenue, profit and order intake in each of its divisions.

Revenue in 2011 rose 17.7%, or 15.9% on an organic constant currency basis, to £447.8m from £380.6m in 2010, ahead of market expectations of turnover of £441.7m.

Adjusted profit before tax was also ahead of expectations. The market had pencilled in a figure of £116m, which Rotork topped by £0.5m, to record a 17.0% increase on 2010's profit before tax of £99.6m. On an organic constant currency basis the rise was trimmed to 16.4%.

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Adjusted earnings per share rose 17.5% to 96.2p from 81.9p the year before (consensus: 95.41p) and the final dividend has been upped by 15.2% to 22.75p from 19.75p, which makes the full year payment 37.25p per share (2010: 32.50p), representing a 14.6% increase, but well below the 45.28p investment analysts were expecting.

"Rotork is well positioned in growth markets and the execution of our long-term strategy of expanding into the wider flow control market will provide further opportunities for growth. This year will see the introduction of several new products and we will also continue to look for suitable acquisition targets," said Peter France, Rotork's Chief Executive.

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