IMI profits dented by industrial automation weakness

Engineer IMI posted a dip in interim profit and revenue on Friday as its precision engineering business continues to be hit by industrial automation weakness.

In the six months to the end of June, pre-tax profit slipped 3% to £110m on revenue of £910m, down 1% on the first half of 2018.

Basic earnings per share fell 2% to 32.1p and the dividend per share was lifted 2% to 14.9p.

IMI said the results are in line with expectations and reflect good margin performances in the critical engineering and hydronic engineering segments but continued weakness in precision engineering's industrial automation markets. This and the expected revenue decline in the critical engineering unit were the principal drivers of the slight drop in revenue.

Chief executive Roy Twite said: “Our strategic review process is focused on developing a plan to increase value for all our stakeholders. We are looking at all aspects of our business and we will report on the outcome of the review with the 2019 preliminary results. In the meantime, we have immediately implemented a number of important profitable growth initiatives to optimise our performance.

"The trading outlook for the group remains substantially unchanged. In the second half of 2019 we continue to expect that organic revenue will experience a decline similar to that in the first half, when compared with the same period in 2018. Nonetheless, second half profits are expected to be similar to last year, supported by the business improvement initiatives pursued by each of the three divisions."