Victrex PLC (LON:VCT) saw favourable currency movements help it post strong growth in full year profits, revenue and margin, leading to a 160% boost to dividend payments.
The FTSE 250 listed provider of specialist polymer products reported an 11% rise in pre-tax profit to £111.0mln for the 12 months to September 30, as group revenue rose by 15% to £290.2mln.
On a constant currency basis, Victrex’s revenue rose by 3% on the back of 1% growth in sales volumes, while its gross margin increased by 40 basis points to 63.3%..
Broad based growth in core business
Jakob Sigurdsson, Victrex’s chief executive said: "This has been a good year for Victrex, with the strength and broad based growth in our core business fully offsetting the expected and significant reduction in Consumer Electronics volumes.”
He added: “"Our pipeline of new products - both our core application pipeline and our mega-programmes - remains strong and our aspiration to deliver 10-20% of sales from new products in the medium term is unchanged."
The company is to pay a regular dividend 53.8p per share, up 15%, and a special dividend of 68.0p per share, making a total payout of 121.8p, a 160% increase on 2016.
New group finance director named
In a separate announcement, Victrex also announced that Louisa Burdett has notified the board of her intention to step down during 2018 as group finance director of the company.
The group said Burdett will work through an orderly transition with her successor Richard Armitage, currently group finance director at Cornish pasty makers Samworth Brothers.
He will join Victrex on 9 April 2018, taking over as group finance director from that date.