LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Plastics maker Synthomer said volumes of sales in the third quarter remained flat on last year and that it continued to hunt for acquisition opportunities.
Targets for the full year 2017 were unchanged from the interim results in August, underpinned by what the FTSE 250 company called "resilient" trading in Europe, while Asian volumes were flat but underlying nitrile sales continued to grow.

Synthomer generated further strong cash flows and said it expected a £4m benefit from the weaker pound in the first half but no more from the second unless there are major changes.

Europe and North American volumes and unit margins were in line with the same period last year, with some weakness in dispersions for construction and coatings applications offset by a solid performance in latex for the paper and foam markets.

Expansion of German dispersions capacity was said to be on schedule for commercial production by this time next year.

After agreeing to acquiring BASF's Austrian latex business during the quarter for €30m, the deal is expected to complete early in 2018.

Looking to Asia and Rest of World, volumes were flat versus the same period last year, as expected.

On the upside, the underlying market for nitriles continued to grow at more than 10%, with unit margins flat on the first half of the year but down on the same quarter last year when extra capacity was added.

Plans to invest in further nitrile capacity at the Malaysian plant remained on track, which is expected to come on line by this time next year.

"We remain focused on driving sustainable growth whilst also continuing to evaluate acquisition opportunities. The board's expectations for full year 2017 remain unchanged from the interim results in August," management said.

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