LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Vesuvius announced a 10.7% improvement in its underlying revenue in its annual results on Thursday, to £1.798bn, reporting that both its steel and foundry divisions outperformed their underlying markets.
The FTSE 250 molten metal flow engineering and technology company's underlying trading profit was ahead 24.1% at £197.2m, with a "significant" improvement in its return on sales reported for the year ended 31 December, up 120 basis points to 11.0%.

Its board said it had "successfully recovered" the impact of 2017's temporary headwinds, and added that the implementation of its restructuring programmes was fully on track.

It improved its working capital-to-revenue ratio to 23.9%, compared to 24.9% at the end of 2017, and noted its strengthened balance sheet, with net Debt-to-last 12 months EBITDA at 1.0x, down from 1.3x at the end the prior year.

The full-year dividend rose 10% to 19.8p per share, the board said.

"2018 was a year of record performance for Vesuvius, underpinned by the benefits derived from our self-help restructuring programmes and strong commercial performances, combined with a positive orientation in the majority of our steel and foundry end-markets," said Vesuvius chief executive officer Patrick André.

"Looking forward, we plan to continue growing our revenue and accelerate and intensify efforts to optimise our costs, to support our drive towards further profitable growth.

"For these reasons, and despite a less favourable market environment, the Board is confident that, in comparison to 2018, further progress will be made in 2019."

In a separate announcement on Thursday, Vesuvius also confirmed that it had signed an agreement to acquire CCPI - a specialty refractory producer in Ohio.

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