LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Morgan Advanced Materials posted a 0.6% rise in its first-half revenue for the six months to 30 June on Thursday, to £521.8m, or a 7.8% improvement based on constant currencies.
The FTSE 250 company said its group headline operating profit was up 0.5%, or 12.4% at constant exchange rates, to £61.5m, with its group headline operating profit margin remaining stable at 11.8%.

Headline earnings per share were 13.9% higher at 13.1p, with the board declaring an interim dividend per share of 4p, in line with what was paid last year.

Cash flow from operations was ahead 3.7% at £53.5m, with free cash flow before acquisitions, disposals and dividends increasing to £18.8m from £16.8m in the same period last year.

On a statutory basis, operating profit plunged to £50.1m from £103.7m and profit before tax was down to £43.9m from £91.9m.

Statutory basic earnings per share were 9.1p, falling from 26.9p a year ago.

On the operational front, the Morgan board sai the implementation of its strategy remained "firmly on track", with the strategy contributing to growth in the first half.

It made a further incremental investment of £7m in research and development, sales effectiveness, and wider business infrastructure during the period, which was funded through £7m of operational efficiency savings.

Organic volume growth was said to have been offset by foreign exchange, dilutive impacts of the 2017 divestments and some adverse mix in its Thermal and Technical Ceramics unit.

Morgan did report continued improvement in its cash generation, with its net debt-to-EBITDA ratio ending the period at 1.2x.

"We have made good progress with the implementation of our strategy in the first half and we expect to complete our execution priorities to plan during the year," said Morgan Advanced Materials chief executive officer Pete Raby.

"Trading conditions have been good in the first half of the year in most of our markets.

"The group has continued to grow organically reflecting these end market conditions and share wins driven by our strategy implementation."

Raby said that, as the firm progressed through the year, the board expected the growth rate would moderate slightly as it tracked against a tougher prior year comparator period.

"We are ahead of our plan to drive operational efficiency across the business, and these savings funded investment in research and development and sales effectiveness in the first half as planned.

"Our expectations for the full-year are now slightly higher than previously anticipated."

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