Victrex PLC on Friday said it saw revenue rise during the first quarter of its current financial year, and left its full-year growth expectations unchanged.
The Lancashire, England-based polymer solutions provider for automotive, aerospace, energy and industrial, electronics and medical markets said revenue in its first quarter that ended December 31 was £66.6 million, up 8.5% from £61.2 million the year before.
The FTSE 250-listed firm’s volume for the quarter increased 18% to 898 tonnes from 751 tonnes last year.
‘The group has delivered a solid start to the year and our full year expectations are unchanged,’ said Chief Executive Jakob Sigurdsson.
‘Based on our momentum at this early stage, our guidance remains for at least mid-single digit volume growth for financial 2025, with underlying pretax profit growth ahead of volume growth.’
Victrex expects capital expenditure for the year to reduce to around 8% to 10% of revenue, or around £30 million, following its ‘major investment phase’ in assets and capability.
Sigurdsson continued: ‘Cost control, self-help measures, higher asset utilisation and lower raw material costs will help to underpin profit improvement in financial 2025. However, we are mindful that current trading conditions remain mixed, with continuing softness in Medical. As a result, profit growth will be weighted to the second half year.
‘This reflects Medical and sales mix, the impact of currency - which is a £7 million - £8 million headwind to pretax profit for the year - being heavily weighted to the first half of 2025, and annualised costs from our new China facility. All of these factors are expected to limit our progress in the first half year, versus the first half of 2024.’
Shares in Victrex were down 0.4% at 985.00 pence in London on Friday morning.
Sigurdsson added: ‘Victrex continues to have a strong long-term investment proposition. We have a robust, diversified and increasingly differentiated core business, growing commercialisation in our mega-programmes, well invested assets, and the prospect of further cashflow improvement. Overall, we are well-placed for the medium to longer term.’
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