Halma PLC (LON:HLMA) reported a record first-half profit and said the second half had started well with orders and revenues well ahead of last year.
The FTSE 100-listed leading safety, health and environmental technology group on Tuesday reported a 19% rise in pretax profit to £112.9mln in the six months to the end of September on revenues 16% up at £585.5mln.
READ: Halma pays £21mln in cash to acquire innovative radar surveillance and safety solutions provider Navtech Radar
The company highlighted strong performances from its medical, environmental and analysis units and said the USA had delivered a very strong performance, while the UK, mainland Europe and Asia-Pacific had all continued to make progress.
Halma hiked the interim dividend by 7% to 6.11p and said the outlook was positive despite political uncertainty in many of its markets.
“Although the pace of technological and geopolitical changes is impacting economies and industries worldwide, we continue to benefit from the agility and resilience of our business model, as well as our geographic diversity, financial strength and focus on global niche markets,” Halma CEO Andrew Williams said in a statement.
“Following a very strong first half, order intake continues to be ahead of both revenue and order intake for the comparable period last year. We remain on track to deliver more typical rates of constant currency organic growth in the second half, resulting in a strong full-year performance,” he added.
Halma said its acquisition pipeline was healthy with three acquisitions completed in the first half and two further acquisitions completed since the period end.
Earlier this month Halma said it would pay £21mln in cash to acquire Navtech Radar Ltd., a provider of innovative radar surveillance and safety solutions for use in highway monitoring, perimeter security and industrial applications.