Automotive supplier’s shares crash after profit warning
Automotive supplier Autins Group has issued a profits warning, sending its share price to an all-time low.
The Rugby-based manufacturer, which floated on the Alternative Investment Market in August 2016, makes acoustic and thermal insulation for automotive manufacturers.
Despite figures from the SMMT showing an improvement in car sales in May, the industry is under pressure from weak demand and cost pressures.
Autins told the stock market that although it expects “solid year on year top-line growth”, revenues for the year to September 2018 will be “behind market expectations and profitability will be significantly below market expectations”.
The group had previously said its performance would have a significant weighting to its second half, but “now expects that the second half performance is likely to remain broadly similar to the first”.
Investors reacted badly, with its share price down 33% in early trading, to 55p.
It floated at 168p per share less than two years ago and peaked at 239p in December 2016. In the last 18 months its shares have lost three-quarters
of their value.
Autins’ non-executive chairman Adam Attwood sought to emphasise the positives this morning, pointing to the medium-term prospects for the group.
He said: “The investments made in the past year have enabled us to make good progress to ensure we can deliver sustainable growth. We have built a strong pipeline of quoted opportunities whilst winning good business for future year models across major targeted OEMs. This diversification across UK and Europe underpins our strategy and positions us for a bright future.
“However, before this new business can come into live production, we have near-term challenges with lower demand in the UK constraining our current financial performance.”
