Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 8389X

Halma PLC

14 February 2013

 



Halma plc Interim Management Statement and new reporting sectors 14 February 2013 Interim Management Statement Halma, the leading safety, health and environmental technology group today makes an Interim Management Statement ("IMS"), prior to its financial year ending 30 March 2013, covering the period from 30 September 2012 to date. Based on current trading and forecasts, the Board expects adjusted profit (see note 1) for the full year to be in line with market expectations. The regional and sector trading patterns reported for the first six months of the financial year have been maintained.  Good growth has continued in the USA and Asia whilst tougher trading conditions remain in the UK and Europe. Our Industrial Safety sector has performed strongly.  Health & Analysis is benefiting from recent acquisitions with good performances in Health Optics and Fluid Technology offsetting weakness in Photonics.  Infrastructure Sensors is making solid progress with the expected improvement in Elevator Safety and softer trading in Automatic Door Sensors. This financial year we have made five acquisitions and one disposal.  All acquisitions, including MicroSurgical Technology and Longer Pump, which were acquired in December 2012 and January 2013 respectively, are trading well and in line with our expectations. We have maintained strong returns and achieved good cash generation, which provide us with the financial capacity for further acquisitions and investment.  We continue to search for opportunities across all of Halma's market sectors. There have been no material events or transactions impacting the Group's financial position, which remains strong. The results for the financial year ending 30 March 2013 are expected to be released on  13 June 2013. New Reporting Sectors Halma's products "protect life" and "improve the quality of life" in safety, health and environmental markets.  Since 2005, we have reported our business under three sectors including two focused on Safety (Industrial Safety and Infrastructure Sensors) and one on Health and the Environment (Health & Analysis).  All our businesses operate in markets with one or more of our long-term growth drivers: increasing Health & Safety regulation, increasing demand for healthcare and the increasing need for life-critical resources (such as energy and water). Significant M&A activity in recent years has resulted in the Health & Analysis sector growing from ~30% of Group profit in 2005 to ~50% today.  In future, the current Health & Analysis sector will be reported under two new sectors, namely Medical and Environmental & Analysis.  The creation of a separate Medical sector reflects our growing presence in the medical devices market, in particular in ophthalmology and blood pressure monitoring. The two safety-related sectors, Industrial Safety and Infrastructure Sensors, will be re-named Process Safety and Infrastructure Safety respectively. The new reporting sectors are intended to provide greater insight into the products, markets and market growth drivers which are supporting our strong performance and future prospects. These new sectors include subsidiaries with similar end-markets which will continue to help Halma further develop market-driven strategies through collaboration.  The fundamental Group philosophy of giving subsidiaries autonomy and resources to grow independently remains in place. Group earnings are unaffected by this restatement.  No management changes are directly related to this change.  Halma's full year results for the 52-week period to 30 March 2013 will be reported under the new sectors. Halma will provide further details of this change at the Capital Markets event noted below, and in an announcement to be released at 2.00pm today.  Capital Markets Event The Group will host a Capital Markets event for analysts and institutional investors this afternoon in London. The event will include presentations on Halma's growth track record over recent years and the Group's ongoing M&A growth strategy, as well as the new reporting sectors outlined this morning. No new material financial information will be disclosed in the presentation and a detailed summary of the presentation will be available on Halma's website at 2.00pm: www.halma.com. Conference call Andrew Williams (Chief Executive) and Kevin Thompson (Finance Director) will host a conference call for analysts and investors on the trading information covered in our IMS at 8.00am (UK time) today (14 February).  To join the call, please use the dial in numbers below: Dial:    [phone] PIN:    10262640#

For further information, please contact: Halma plc Andrew Williams, Chief Executive Kevin Thompson, Finance Director	Tel: [phone]
MHP Communications Rachel Hirst/Andrew Jaques	Tel: [phone]

Notes:

1.	Adjusted profit is before amortisation of acquired intangible assets, acquisition costs, movement on contingent consideration and profit on disposal of operations.
2.	This Interim Management Statement has been prepared solely to provide additional information to the shareholders of Halma plc, in order to meet the requirements of the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. It should not be relied on by any other party, for other purposes. Forward-looking statements have been made by the Directors in good faith using information available up until the date that they approved this statement. Forward-looking statements should be regarded with caution because of the inherent uncertainties in economic trends and business risks.
3.	A copy of this announcement, together with other information about Halma, may be viewed on its website:  www.halma.com

 

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