Bodycote maintains 2018 outlook as revenues rise

Bodycote maintained its outlook for 2018 on Thursday as it posted a jump in revenue.

In an update for the four months to 31 October, the provider of heat treatment and thermal processing services said revenue rose 5% to £243.5m, in line with its expectations. The group said this was solid growth, particularly given the strong performance in the same period a year ago.

For the 10 months to the end of October, revenue was 6% higher, with revenue in Specialist Technologies up 11% at constant currency.

Car and light truck revenues grew 5%, driven by a continued strong performance in Emerging Markets and Specialist Technologies. Meanwhile, revenue in the civil aerospace division was 14% higher, with North America and Western Europe both seeing good growth amid rising output for the LEAP program and an easing in the OEM supply chain bottlenecks for titanium castings.

Revenue in the energy arm was up 4% as the and gas business continues to perform well, while the company's Industrial Gas Turbines business weakened further with underlying revenues falling more than 25%.

General industrial revenues were 4% higher, in line with the trends in industrial production.

Bodycote had net cash of £16.0m as at 31 October compared to £17.7m at 30 June.

"As anticipated, the pace of revenue growth will moderate in the last two months given the strong prior year comparator. Bodycote's outlook for 2018 remains unchanged," it said.