Severfield-Rowen said that strong trading in 2008 had continued into the first five months of its current financial year, but warned that 2010 could be tough.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
205.25p
The structural steelmaker said underlying profits in 2009 would be ahead of market expectations, leading broker RBS to upgrade this year's pre-tax and EPS forecasts by around 9 per cent to £37m and 29.6p, respectively. But the company warned that UK prospects "continue to fade" and that it would need to turn to lower margin export sales - in particular petrochemical projects in the Middle East - to offset falling UK construction demand. RBS expects EPS to fall sharply to 19.2p in 2010, but said this could go lower.
