Vesuvius's annual profit soars in "Record" performance in 2018

2019-03-02

Mar. 1, 2019 - Molten metal engineering firm Vesuvius PLC's profit surged in 2018, the company said, in what it said was a record year.

Vesuvius posted a pretax profit of GBP156.2 million, 61% higher year-on-year, while the headline figure rose 24% to GBP188.9 million. The latter figure is before exceptional items, and is from continuing operations.

Revenue rose 6.8% to GBP1.80 billion, with underlying revenue growth 11%.

Vesuvius will pay a 13.8 pence per share final dividend, taking the total for 2018 to 19.8p, up from 18.0p in 2017.

"2018 was a year of record performance for Vesuvius, underpinned by the benefits derived from our self-help restructuring programmes and strong commercial performances, combined with a positive orientation in the majority of our steel and foundry end-markets," said Chief Executive Patrick Andre.

The core Steel unit increased revenue by 12% to GBP1.24 billion and trading profit by 33% to GBP128.3 million, with the unit boosted by increased steel output worldwide.

Vesuvius' Foundry arm increased revenue by 8.2% and trading profit by 11%, as it made market share gains in some key products. Restructuring also helped profit, Vesuvius said.

Vesuvius is on track with the restructuring, delivering an incremental GBP14.0 million in cash savings for 2018. The programme was started in 2015, and Vesuvius had nearly completed it, with GBP8.4 million of savings still to be delivered by 2020.

A new programme was started last March, and it has GBP16.4 million of savings from this left to deliver by 2021. Vesuvius said it will deliver GBP14.0 million in recurring cash savings in 2019, leaving GBP8.5 million to be delivered from the two programmes in 2020 and GBP2.3 million in 2021.

"Looking forward, we plan to continue growing our revenue and accelerate and intensify efforts to optimise our costs, to support our drive towards further profitable growth. For these reasons, and despite a less favourable market environment, the board is confident that, in comparison to 2018, further progress will be made in 2019," Andre added.