Trading Statement

RNS Number : 0655C

Halma PLC

27 September 2018

 

Halma plc

Trading Update

27 September 2018

Halma, the leading safety, health and environmental technology group, today releases its scheduled trading update, for the period from 1 April 2018 to date.

Halma made good progress in this period, in line with the Board's expectations.

All sectors delivered organic constant currency revenue and profit growth. Order intake was ahead of revenue and also ahead of the same period last year.

The Medical and Environmental & Analysis sectors delivered strong growth, with Medical continuing to benefit from the actions taken to improve profitability in the second half of last year. Process Safety and Infrastructure Safety continued to perform well, even though the Process Safety performance included some modest re-organisation costs.

There was widespread growth geographically, with organic constant currency revenue increases in all major regions. The USA grew strongly, and all other regions saw good rates of growth.

Cash generation remained strong. This, together with Halma's robust financial position, will support continued investment in growth, both organically and by acquisition.

We have a good acquisition pipeline and our M&A teams continue to be active. We made three small, technologically-driven bolt-on acquisitions in the period, for a maximum total consideration of £3 million.

The results for the half year ending 30 September 2018 will be released on 20 November 2018.

For further information, please contact:
Halma plc
Andrew Williams, Chief Executive	On 27 September:  [phone]
Marc Ronchetti, Chief Financial Officer	Thereafter: [phone]
Charles King, Head of Investor Relations
MHP Communications
Rachel Hirst/ Andrew Jaques	[phone]

About Halma

Halma is a market leader in specialist safety, health and environmental technologies, creating a safer, cleaner and healthier future for people worldwide. We target markets where sustainable growth and high returns are supported by long-term drivers. We operate in four sectors: Process Safety, Infrastructure Safety, Medical and Environmental & Analysis. We employ over 6,000 people in 20 countries, with major operations in Europe, the USA and Asia-Pacific. In the year to 31 March 2018, the Group's revenues exceeded £1bn for the first time. Halma is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has been a member of the FTSE 100 index since December 2017.

Notes:

1.   This Trading Update is based upon unaudited management accounts information. 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.

2.   The Medical sector disposed of the Accudynamics fluid technology business for US$5m, resulting in a small loss on disposal of US$1.6m. The original US$31.8m consideration on acquisition in Dec 2010 primarily related to goodwill (regarding our, ultimately successful, ability to develop the product offering of other fluid technology businesses across the Halma group) and customer intangibles.

3.   The Finance Director succession was completed as planned in the period, with Marc Ronchetti starting as Halma's Chief Financial Officer on 1 July 2018, following an extensive handover process. In other senior moves, Carol Chesney, Company Secretary, will leave Halma after 23 years at the end of September 2018 to focus on her non-executive appointments, with a new General Counsel and Company Secretary expected to be appointed in early 2019, and Charles King joined as Head of Investor Relations earlier this month.

4.   A copy of this announcement, together with other information about Halma, may be viewed on its website at www.halma.com

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