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LONDON (Alliance News) - Synthomer PLC said Tuesday its Europe & North America division recorded "solid" third quarter and Asia & Rest of World division continued to grow in line with expectations, as the company reorganises its structure into three divisions.
The FTSE 250-listed chemicals company said it will be reorganising from January 2019, "in order to accelerate sales growth".
Synthomer will create three new business groups: Performance Elastomers, Functional Solutions and Specialities.
The company believes the new structure will "better leverage" its product portfolio.
The new structure will combines sales, marketing, research and production by business group into dedicated teams.
Synthomer will report its 2018 results under its existing geographic reporting structure but will also publish certain segmental information under the new structure, which will then be adopted going forward.
In the third quarter, the company said its Europe & North America division's sales volumes were "slightly lower" than the comparative period a year before. Synthomer did say, however, that its unit margins were "slightly above" the previous year, reflecting further investment and increased efficiencies across the division.
The Asia & Rest of World division saw its Nitrile Latex unit increase volumes slightly, ahead of a "strong comparative" period last year. Nitrile Latex's unit margins were also higher than the previous year.
The unit saw an expansion of its Pasir Gudang plant in the quarter, which will make a small contribution to the group in the fourth quarter.
Synthomer said demand for Nitrile Latex remains "robust" and it has initiated work for a further 60,000 tonne expansion at Pasir Gudang during 2020.
At September 30, Synthomer had net debt of GBP256 million, up from GBP232 million the year before.
Synthomer said the increase was due to further investment in working capital and a planned step up in capital expenditure.
Looking ahead, the company believes it is well positioned to "withstand the challenging macroeconomic and political environment" due to its product and geographic diversity.
Synthomer's outlook for 2018 remains unchanged.
For 2017, the company posted pretax profit of GBP86.4 million on revenue of GBP1.48 billion.
Shares in Synthomer were up 3.5% Tuesday at 457.20 pence each.
