Smiths Group H1 pretax profits up 7 pct, acquires CDI Energy Services UPDATE

Smiths Group H1 pretax profits up 7 pct, acquires CDI Energy Services UPDATE

	Published : Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:25 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Adds detail on acquisition)

LONDON (AFX) - Security and medical equipment maker Smiths Group PLC has reported a 7 pct rise in H1 headline pretax profits of 134 mln stg for continuing operations, despite a significant impact from the weaker dollar, the company said.

Headline EPS from continuing activities, excluding the aerospace business, which is being sold to General Electric Company, is up 7 pct to 17.4 pence, and operating profits on the same basis are also up 7 pct to 148 mln stg. The net margin improved from 13.8 pct to 14.5 pct, with margins in all three continuing businesses moving ahead, the company said. The interim dividend is up 6.6 pct to 10.5p a share.

Smiths said it had a strong start to the year, with the continuing businesses performing well despite the currency headwind, and it has made good progress on completing the sale of Aerospace and establishing the new Smiths GE Detection business.

'The outlook for the current financial year and beyond remains encouraging and is in line with management expectations,' it added.

Smiths also announced the acquisition of CDI Energy Services, based in Tyler, Texas, for 37.0 mln usd (19.2 mln stg). The deal will extend the group's participation in the oil and gas industries, it said, and will report through its subsidiary John Crane, which is part of the Specialty Engineering division.

Keith Butler-Wheelhouse, chief executive of Smiths Group, said: 'This acquisition marks a broadening of our technology in the energy sector. CDI brings new products to our offering and adds important new capability to our fast-growing remote energy asset management services.'

paul.sandle@thomson.com

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