Renishaw PLC (LSE:RSW) bumped up its interim dividend 14% to 16p per share after a strong first half driven by continued demand for its micro instruments from the semiconductor market and investment in industrial automation.
The precision engineer, based in the Cotswolds, reported pre-tax profit of £81.5mln for the six months ending 31 December, up 27.5% compared to a year earlier, as revenue grew 27% to £325.2mln. Underlying profit increased 94% to £84.2mln.
In its interim report, the FTSE 250 company, which put itself up for sale last year but failed to find a buyer, said it was a record first-half revenue.
Last July, founders Sir David McMurtry and John Deer abandoned the formal sale process as no buyer could be found who could be guaranteed to respect the company culture and employees, with the pair hanging onto their combined 53% stake and stating they were “committed to Renishaw and have no intention of selling their shares on the market for the foreseeable future”.
For the full year, revenue is seen coming in between £650mln and £690mln, up to 22% higher on the previous financial year, with adjusted pre-tax profit set to range between £157mln and £181mln, versus £119.7mln last time.
McMurtry, who is executive chairman, hailed strong revenue growth in all regions, with growth for all product lines in the manufacturing technologies segment.
“The strong demand for our encoder product lines continues to be driven by increased investments in industrial automation and the semiconductor and electronics capital equipment markets, while our gauging line is benefiting from a recovery in metal cutting operations and increased investments in shopfloor metrology."
There are a record number of orders in the company's order book, and demand from the semiconductor and electronics sectors is also expected to remain strong. A continued recovery is further expected in the machine tool and coordinate measuring machine markets.
The shares rose 5% to 4,837.28p by lunchtime on Thursday, down over 21% over the past 12 months.