Spirax Plc are proposing a total dividend per share of 12.5p.
Other financial highlights include:
Full year revenue of £561.3m decreased 4.3% year-on-year. Second half revenue increased 0.5% on a like for like basis, following a 10.6% decline in the first half, reflecting a stabilisation of market conditions.
Full year underlying operating margin increased by 40 bps to 16.4%, driven by productivity gains through the Genuit Business System (GBS) and purchasing savings, reflecting continued progress towards the medium-term operating margin target of over 20%.
Second half underlying operating margin was 80bps ahead of first half and 10bps ahead of H2 2023, driving an 11% increase in underlying operating profit versus the first half.
Reported operating profit of £59.2m (2023: £62.0m) decreased 4.5% year-on-year.
Focus on working capital improvement delivered strong underlying operating cash generation of £91.6m, representing 99.3% cash conversion on a post-capex basis and 107.6% cash conversion on a pre-capex basis.
Net debt reduced to 0.9 times underlying pro-forma EBITDA at the year-end (2023: 1.1 times), with de-leveraging resulting predominantly from the strong operating cash generation.
Underlying EPS decreased to 24.6p, due to lower reported operating profit and the annualisation of the higher UK tax rate.
