Bodycote revenue and profits tumble amid weak oil and gas sector

MANCHESTER-based engineering group Bodycote has suffered a drop in revenue and profits, with its performance hampered by continued weakness in the oil and gas sector.

Headline pre-tax profits for the half year ended June 30 fell 8.6% to £48.1m (HY 2015: £52.6m) and revenue dropped 2.9% to £291m (HY2015: £299.8m).

Meanwhile, headline operating margin reduced to 16.9%, impacted by oil and gas, although excluding that the margin was maintained.

Earnings per share fell 13.1% to 18.3p (HY2015: 21.1p).

The FTSE 250 company also said specialist technologies now represent more than 40% of its operating profit.

Group chief executive Stephen Harris said: “The group has again demonstrated its ability to deal with challenging market conditions, including delivery of a continued improvement in the AGI margin.

“This has been achieved against a background of subdued demand for industrial machinery and a further substantial decline in oil and gas revenues.

“Looking ahead, and noting the group’s lack of visibility, we expect growth in our aerospace and automotive markets to continue and the sequential decline in oil and gas activity to have largely abated.

“Recent demand in general industrial markets has been softer than expected and improvements are not anticipated in the second half. However, if current exchange rates prevail, we expect weakness in overall trading, for the year as a whole, to be offset by the benefit of currency translation.

“The group continues to benefit from the flexibility afforded by the strength of its balance sheet, with minimal leverage and continuing strong cash generation.

“We will continue to follow our strategy of investing in areas of robust profit opportunity, notably in specialist technologies, and in further enriching the mix towards higher added value services in classical heat treatment.”