Halma Plc
Trading update
Halma, the global group of life-saving technology companies focused on growing a safer, cleaner and healthier future, today releases its scheduled trading update, for the period from 1 October 2021 to date.
Good progress in the second half and substantial growth in the year as a whole
Halma has made good progress in the second half of the financial year to date. We continue to benefit from our strong purpose, our diverse portfolio, and our resilient, long-term growth drivers. These strategic qualities, together with the essential nature of many of our products and services, have underpinned increasing demand across the Group. The Board expects Adjusted profit before taxation for the year ending 31 March 2022 to be in line with market consensus expectations (see notes 1 and 2).
The Group is expected to deliver a further sequential improvement in revenue in the second half of the year and substantial revenue growth in the year as a whole. Order intake has continued to be ahead of both revenue this year and order intake for the same period last year.
As planned, we increased strategic investment in talent, new product development, information technology and cybersecurity, to support our growth over the longer term. We also saw a return of discretionary overhead costs to support our current strong growth. Therefore, as guided at the half-year, full year return on sales is anticipated to be more in line with historical levels.
The agility of our business model has enabled our companies to respond effectively to the range of operational challenges caused by COVID-19 and, more recently, the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (see note 4).
The Group has a strong financial position, which enables continued investment, both organically and by acquisition, to support continued growth. Cash generation was solid, and reflected the strong growth in the period and investment to maintain resilience in our supply chain.
Organic constant currency revenue growth in all sectors and major geographic regions
There was further organic constant currency revenue growth across all sectors in the period, following a strong first half. There was widespread growth geographically in the period, with the strongest performances (on an organic constant currency basis) in the USA and the UK, and good growth in Mainland Europe and Asia Pacific.
The Environmental & Analysis sector has continued to deliver strong organic constant currency revenue growth. This reflects ongoing high demand for its products and services, particularly for technologies that support the building of digital and data infrastructure, and for gas monitoring products.
The Safety and Medical sectors are expected to report good organic constant currency revenue growth, also against a strong comparative. On a reported basis, the Medical sector's revenue growth will also benefit from recent acquisitions, while the Safety sector's progress will see the impact of the disposal of Texecom made in the first half of the year.
The strength of Sterling is having a negative currency translation effect on the Group's results (see note 5).
Further progress in M&A; healthy acquisition pipeline
We have made three further acquisitions in the second half of the financial year, bringing the total number of acquisitions made in the year to date to 13 for an aggregate maximum consideration of £166 million (see note 6).
Our acquisition pipeline remains healthy across all three sectors. We continue to actively manage our portfolio of global businesses to ensure that it continues to deliver strong growth and returns over the long term and is aligned with our purpose of growing a safer, cleaner, healthier future for everyone, every day.
Full Year Results
The results for the full year ending 31 March 2022 will be released on Thursday 16 June 2022.