Trifast Releases Half Year Earnings

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14 Nov, 2017, 14:37 GMT

LONDON, November 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Trifast plc (LSE Premium Listing: Ticker: TRI), leading international specialists in the engineering, manufacturing and distribution of high quality industrial fastenings to major global assembly industries has released its Half-year report for the period to September 2017 - the results reflect "Another six months of strong growth, with increased trading driving up the Group's underlying PBT."

Trifast (TR) has a global footprint that meets the needs of the Multinational OEM and Tier 1 customers that it supports in the key sectors of automotive, domestic appliances, electronics and distributors. It operates in 18 countries through 28 locations and exports to over 60 countries around the world supplying over 8 billion components every year to over 5000 companies globally.

To read the HY Financial Report in full, please go to www.trifast.com

To listen to the CEO, Mark Belton talking about trading and the business follow this live link:

https://www.brrmedia.co.uk/broadcasts-embed/5a057df02acfc74f9342e193/event

Malcolm Diamond MBE, Non-Executive Chairman at Trifast commented:

"HY2018 delivered another six months of strong growth, with ongoing investment across all of our regions.

Our strong first half results, together with a robust balance sheet, good access to banking facilities and a proven track record of profitable investment, means the Group is in a great position to keep moving forward. The second half has started well and, with a robust pipeline in place, the Board remain confident of delivering its expectations for the current financial year.

As an international business with over 70% of our revenue being generated outside of the UK, and a very well-balanced geographical and sector spread, the Board remains confident we have the flexibility and foresight to continue to grow, while facing any challenges head on as and when they arise."

"I am personally proud and delighted to oversee the further capability development of our business whilst the core Trifast caring and informal interpersonal culture is jealously guarded by our management."

"WE ARE FOCUSSED ON LEVERAGING OUR COMBINED STRENGTHS AS AN INTEGRATED AND INTERACTIVE GROUP"

SUMMARY POINTS:

TR strategy update

"Our commitment to continuous operational improvement over the past five years has been rewarded with positive KPI performance against targets on a consistent annual basis, together with financial reward for our investors and staff.

Building on this success, the Board, led by Mark Belton, has initiated a major long-term project to provide the Group with improved real-time management information (including an innovative customer relationship management (CRM) and global enquiry system), paralleled with regular senior team training and operational meetings. This is aimed at significantly developing and integrating our existing IT infrastructure around the world so as to support our ongoing growth plans and meet our multinational OEM customers' evolving demands. One early benefit of this improved approach is that our six Asian factories are now sharing factory capacity data to enable work to be shared at times of feast and famine production issues - previously these were managed on a local basis, thus restricting revenue and cost recovery opportunities.

Furthermore, this enhanced use of collective resources is supported by major capital investments in Italy, Singapore and Taiwan, plus distribution and engineering capacity investment in the UK, Sweden, Spain and China.

Our search for suitable acquisitions continues to be a major strategic aim. Since we last reported in June 2017, two larger international targets were thoroughly investigated over several months by our newly formed global acquisitions team, but regrettably, both were finally rejected - more due to future revenue growth risk than to high valuations. Our team brings together the skills and experience needed to conduct initial due diligence without the need to appoint costly external financial advisers. These advisers will only be appointed in the future following the successful agreement of non-binding heads of terms."

Global market overview

"We imagine that there are very few of us in commerce that have failed to be influenced by the recent geopolitical uncertainty that has abounded, and which shows every sign of continuing.

The Trifast Board and management team have concluded, that in our view, global market demand will remain dynamic, and so we have increased our focus on our customers and our supply chain, including our pricing negotiations with key suppliers. This is coupled with our ongoing forward investment in plant and machinery, automation and people skills."

HY OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Revenue up by 4.8% at Constant Exchange Rate (CER), 9.0% at AER, all organic growth
Underlying diluted earnings per share up by 8.1% at AER
Confidence for the future and continued profitable growth in a period of investment, drives an interim dividend increase of 10.0% to 1.10p
Ongoing investment for growth in our sales teams and operations around the world
Capital investment of £1.3m increases our manufacturing capacity and capability, with more to follow
Expanded distribution facilities in Shanghai, with plans in place for Holland and Northern Ireland
New TR Innovation and Technical Centre to be set up in Gothenburg, Sweden's electric vehicle development area
TR Fastenings Espana up and running, with a strong pipeline in place