LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - British engineering firm Renishaw on Thursday posted an increase in first half pre-tax profit as revenues grew across all geographical regions.
Pre-tax profit rose to £35.6m in the six months ended 31 December 2016 from £28.5m the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased to £240m from £198m, supported by underlying growth of 12% and a foreign exchange benefit of 9%.

Revenue in the Far East jumped to £108.7m from £85.5m the previous year. In Europe, revenue edged up to £61.3m from £52.1m while revenue in the Americas grew to £48.6m to £43.7m and revenue in the UK climbed to £13.2m from £11m.

In its Metrology division, revenue came to £227.1m, compared with £184.9m the prior year. Operating profit rose to £41.6m from £30.6m.

The Healthcare unit achieved revenue of £13.3m, up slightly from £13.6m in 2015, but its operating losses widened to £6m from £2.2m.

In October, the group decided to discontinue its operations at its Renishaw Diagnostics Limited business. Renishaw said RDL has been accounted for as a discontinued activity in its first half results, with comparative figures for the previous year being restated accordingly.

During the period, the company increased its net engineering expenditure to £38.3m from £33.3m.

Net cash balances at 31 December was £14.0m, down from £33.3m the prior year.

Looking ahead, the company said: "Notwithstanding current economic uncertainties, the board remains confident in the future prospects of the group.

"We continue to anticipate growth in both revenue and profit in this financial year and expect full year revenue to be in the range of £500m to £530m and profit before tax to be in the range of £85m to £105m."

Renishaw maintained an interim dividend of 12.5p.

Shares were up 0.15% to 2,914.38p at 0940 GMT.

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