Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC on Wednesday said trading was in line with expectations in the first four months of 2024, while it maintains its annual guidance.

The Cheltenham, England-based thermal energy management and pumping company said demand was ‘broadly flat’ in the first four months of the year against a ‘strong comparative period’ a year earlier.

It said demand from pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers has ‘started to show early signs of improvement’, although there has been no increase in demand from semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment customers, as expected.

Spirax-Sarco said all three of its businesses delivered organic sales growth in the first four months of 2024, while low single-digit organic growth was in line with its expectations.

This is ‘given last year’s strong comparative period and consistent with the IP weakness we had anticipated in our key markets’, the company explained.

Spirax-Sarco said group adjusted operating profit margin was slightly ahead compared to the same period in 2023.

Net borrowings excluding leases stood at £658 million, down from £667 million.

Looking ahead, Spirax-Sarco said it continues to expect mid to high-single-digit organic growth in group revenues. This is ‘in line with the forecast phasing of IP and an increase in Biopharm and Semicon demand during the latter part of the year’, the company explained.

Currency headwinds are expected to persist throughout the rest of the year, Spirax-Sarco added, affecting sales by around 3% and around 6% to adjusted operating profit.

As a result, it expects ‘modest progress’ in group adjusted operating profit margin compared to the 20.7% achieved in 2023, with adjusted operating profit more second half weighted than usual.

Shares in Spirax-Sarco were up 3.5% to 9,580.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

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