(Alliance News) - Kingspan Group PLC on Friday expressed caution regarding Brexit uncertainty and weakening German economy, despite reporting a strong performance in the first half.
The Irish building materials company said pretax profit grew by 18% to EUR208.9 million in the six months to the end of June from EUR177.6 million reported a year earlier, as revenue climbed by 12% to EUR2.24 billion from EUR2.01 billion.
"We have delivered a record first half with revenue growth in all our business units and a strong trading profit performance," highlighted Chief Executive Gene Murtagh.
Kingspan said trading was generally positive across most of Continental Europe, with the exception of Germany which was a "little weaker". The UK performed "robustly", the company noted, although weakness is expected in the near-term.
Activity in the Americas was encouraging, meanwhile, as penetration growth continued in North America, with "solid" organic expansion in Latin America.
By product, Insulated Panels global sales were ahead of prior year by 14% and QuadCore volumes were up 42% year-on-year.
Insulation Boards volumes were "significantly" ahead as advanced insulation continued to regain share from traditional fibrous materials, following a temporary interruption due to raw material volatility in 2017 and early 2018.
Light & Air achieved growth of 11%, Kingspan said, and was particularly strong in North America.
Underlying Water & Energy revenue was broadly flat, however, hampered partly by softer demand for residential rainwater systems in Australia. Data & Flooring delivered a "strong" performance, driven by the company's continued progress in its data solutions in both the Americas and Europe, it said.
Kingspan is paying an interim dividend of 13.0 euro cents a share, up 8% year-on-year.
Looking ahead, Murtagh said: "The near-term outlook is solid although the political uncertainty in the UK, weakness in sterling, and weaker German economy are amongst risks we are monitoring closely."
