Engineering firm Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR) saw like-for-like revenues slide in the first half of 2019.
Headline profit before tax in the first half of 2019 was unchanged at £147mln on revenue that grew 22% in constant currency terms to £1.33bn from £1.07bn the year before; like-for-like revenue, however, was down 4%.
Reported profit before tax, which includes what the company regards as one-off items, fell 21% to £78mln from £64mln in the first half of last year.
Cash generated from operations declined by 61% to £54mln in the reporting period from £139mln the previous year.
Net debt at the end of the period had deepened to £1.32bn from £1.13bn a year earlier.
The interim dividend has been hiked by 5% to 16.5p from 15.75p the previous year.
Today, we have announced our half year results for 2019. Read more about the results on our website and follow our social channels for updates throughout the day. #WeirHalfYear2019https://t.co/BPef1MbGMV pic.twitter.com/E6tV0WiMRt
— The Weir Group (@weirgroup) July 30, 2019
"The first half of the year progressed largely as we expected it to,” revealed Jos Stanton, Weir's chief executive.
“We are making good progress in our mining equipment businesses benefiting from our focus on after-market-intensive applications, particularly for battery metals including copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt supported by our extensive installed base and global service network,” he added.
“As we look to the rest of 2019, we continue to anticipate another year of good constant currency revenue and profit growth," Stanton said.
Shares in Weir were down 3.8% at 1,501.5p in early deals.