Weir soars as it predicts strong growth in 2014
ENGINEERING firm Weir Group soared over seven per cent in trading yesterday, after chief executive Keith Cochrane predicted a return to growth this year.
The FTSE 100-quoted company reported a four per cent decline in revenue to £2.43bn and five per cent fall in pre-tax profit to £418m in 2013, which Cochrane called “a challenging year in many of our end markets”.
The oil and gas division saw revenues decline last year, which Weir attributed to a reduction in equipment sales, as expected.
But strong growth is predicted for 2014, supported by mid single-digit growth in upstream spending in North America and the Middle East.
Weir also predicts “strong growth” from its power and industrials unit.
But it expects modest revenue growth and a slight decline in margins from its minerals division, as the mining sector continues to suffer from low metal prices.
“In 2014, we anticipate that the group will return to underlying growth despite mixed end market conditions,” said Cochrane.
“We expect good constant currency revenue and profit growth with group margins broadly in line with 2013 levels, although our reported results are likely to be impacted by recent adverse foreign currency movements.”
The firm increased its dividend by 11 per cent to 42p per share.
Espirito Santo called the results “an encouraging outlook based on good order momentum”.
Shares closed up 7.1 per cent.