Renishaw makes ‘steady progress’ towards strategic goals
Renishaw has made “steady progress” in the first half of the year as the engineering group focuses on increasing its profit margins over the medium term.
Revenues were up 3% to £341.4m, and pre-tax profits increased 2%, to £57.5m. It maintained its interim dividend at 16.8p.
Renishaw chief executive Will Lee
Will Lee, chief executive of Renishaw, said: “We have continued to make steady progress in mixed trading conditions and our order intake has recently improved, particularly from the semiconductor manufacturing and consumer electronics sectors.”
Revenues in its largest region, Asia-Pacific, which accounts for nearly half of its total income, were flat in the six months to December.
Europe and the Middle East, and the Americas, both saw 5% growth measured by constant currency.
Renishaw is based in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, and most of its R&D work takes place in the UK, and its largest manufacturing sites are in the UK, Ireland and India.
It has three strategic priorities – growing in its existing markets, increasing the value of the technology it sells, and extending into high-growth markets.
Lee added: “Supported by our strategic progress, we expect to achieve steady revenue growth this year. Our markets present significant structural growth opportunities, and we are confident that the investment that we are currently making in productivity improvements will drive our operating margins towards our 20% target in the medium term.”
The FTSE 250 company is forecasting its full-year revenues will be between £695m-£735m, with adjusted pre-tax profits of £105m-£135m.
Its margins have edged up one percentage point to 15%. It benefitted from “significant gains” from forward currency contracts, which it entered into at favourable rates following volatility in currency markets after the Truss-Kwarteng mini-Budget in 2022.
