SPIRAX-SARCO ENGINEERING PLC (Reuters) - Spirax-Sarco Engineering Plc (>> Spirax-Sarco Engineering) on Wednesday reported better-than-expected first-half revenue and adjusted pretax profit, helped by acquisitions, a weak sterling and strength in its operations outside the UK.
Shares in the company rose about 1 percent in morning trading on the London Stock Exchange.
Spirax-Sarco, which makes steam traps and pumps for industries such as food and beverages, healthcare, chemicals and power, said adjusted profit before tax rose 30 percent to 99.2 million pounds ($129.0 million) in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier.
Revenue rose 25 percent to 428.6 million pounds in the period, the company said.
Analysts on average were expecting pretax profit of 93.1 million pounds on revenue of 422.3 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The acquisition last year of Aflex, a hose-maker for pharmaceutical, food, chemical and automotive industries, and German valve-maker Gestra in May this year, aided profit growth, the company said.
Revenue rose 13 percent at constant currency, boosted by increasing industrial production growth rates, the company said.
"While current forecasts for global industrial production growth are slightly lower for the second half of the year, we anticipate that our markets will remain relatively stable for the remainder of this year", the company said in a statement.
Spirax-Sarco said the Gestra acquisition and the acquisition of Pittsburgh-based thermal technology company Chromalox in July were expected to add about 20 percent sales growth for the full-year.
The company said that it did not anticipate making any "significant" acquisitions in the next 12 to 18 months.
Revenue from Europe, Middle East and Africa, Spirax-Sarco's largest market, grew 23 percent to 137.9 million pounds and accounted for 32 percent of total sales.
(Reporting by Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)
