Bodycote PLC (LON:BOY), which specialises in heat treatments that make metals more resilient, has made a mixed start to the year.
In the first four months of 2019, the company said it has seen excellent growth in civil aerospace revenues but this has been offset by anticipated weakness in automotive and general industrial revenues against strong comparatives from the same period last year.
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The upshot is that the board’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged, assuming macroeconomic conditions do not deteriorate.
Net cash as at 30 April was £31mln compared with £36mln at 31 December 2018.
The company flagged a previously-mentioned state aid investigation being conducted by the European Commission (EC), saying the EC has now decided that certain tax exemptions offered by the UK authorities constituted state aid and, as such, will need to be recovered.
Bodycote has previously estimated that the maximum potential liability from this investigation would be £20mln and it is now in discussion with its tax advisers to understand the implications of the EC’s decision and determine what, if any, exceptional charge may need to be booked.