Currency fluctuations and December's demerger from Cookson complicated maiden results from Alent (ALNT). But there's no hiding the impact on performance from tumbling European car volumes and shrinking printed circuit board (PCB) and semiconductor markets. It supplies them all with solder and coatings to make car locks, airbags and smartphones work. Still, strip out a big foreign exchange hit - and revenue from metals passed through to customers - and group sales were flat at £416.7m. Restructuring costs hurt the bottom line, but better margins nudged underlying operating profit up 3 per cent to £97.2m, and industry forecasts suggest the electronics market, which accounts for three-quarters of Alent's sales, will return to growth this year.
The first quarter has already gone to plan, says chief executive Steve Corbett, a result of hooking up with the right smartphone and tablet manufacturers. Last year, almost a third of Alent's solder paste volume ended up with three big makers - likely Apple, Samsung and LG. That, and the ongoing shift towards modern surface mount PCB technology, is why the assembly materials division generated all the growth - rising margins helped push profits up 10 per cent to £58.7m. It will be the big driver this year, too, given the state of Europe's automotive industry, which hit both sales and profit at the surface chemistries unit.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £97m in 2013, giving adjusted EPS of 26.7p (from £100m and 27.5p in 2012).
ALENT (ALNT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 353p | MARKET VALUE: | £984m | |
| TOUCH: | 353-354p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 413p | LOW: 296p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.3% | PE RATIO: | 22 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE | 99p* | NET DEBT: | 52% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 814 | 94.4 | 27.0 | NA |
| 2012 | 714 | 73.2 | 16.2 | 8.25† |
| % change | -12 | -22 | -40 | - |
Ex-div: 8 May Payment: 13 Jun *Includes intangible assets of £295m, or 106p a share †Calculated on a pro-forma basis to reflect December 2012's demerger from Cookson | ||||
