The Vesuvius PLC Board has declared an interim dividend of 6.2 pence per share (2020: 3.1p per share), which represents an increase of 100% compared to our 2020 interim dividend. The interim dividend will be paid on 17 September 2021 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 6 August 2021. Any shareholder wishing to participate in the Vesuvius Dividend Reinvestment Plan needs to have submitted their election to do so by 26 August 2021.
Other financial highlights include:
Revenue of £808.1m, an increase of 18% on an underlying basis, reflecting the ongoing recovery in both Steel and Foundry Divisions across most geographies and all end markets
Strong underlying sales growth in both Steel Flow Control (+21%) and Foundry (+22%), supported by the end market rebound and market share gains, with more moderate growth in Advanced Refractories (+9%) where priority was given to price increases over volumes
Trading profit of £73.3m, an increase of 54% on an underlying basis, with return-on-sales up 220bps to 9.1%
H1 2021 trading profit impacted by £10.3m in excess freight costs due to global supply chain disruption
Selling price increases compensated raw material costs but did not fully mitigate H1 excess freight costs
Focus on market share growth and medium-term market opportunities from:
o £28m capacity expansion in Steel Flow Control in Asia and EMEA, to be operational from late 2022
o 12 new products launched, underlining the benefits of maintaining industry-leading R&D investment during 2020
Continued strong working capital performance with trade working capital/sales having improved to 20.7% at June 2021 (12m average), versus 23.2% at December 2020 and 24.6% at June 2020
Improvement in our Net debt/EBITDA to 1.1x at June 2021, versus 1.2x at December 2020, and refinancing of our revolving credit facility ("RCF") in early July which was increased in size from £300m to £385m
