After a buoyant year with strong organic growth, international engineering group Siebe Plc remains confident it will meet its growth targets this year, through a combination of increased market share, geographical expansion and new products. The Windsor, Berkshire-based company reported a 20% rise in pre-tax profits to ú144.2m for the six months to September 30, on turnover up 19% at ú1,200m. Chairman Barrie Stephens said, These results demonstrate a very solid performance by the group for the past six months and also show that we are on track to meet our planned growth targets. Having met its 10% organic growth targets for the year ended April 1 (CI No 2,676), chief executive Allen Yurko said in June he was aiming for a further 10% organic growth in sales plus acquisitions this year, and for a 15% rise in profits. In the six months to date, actual organic growth is said to be running at 15.6% on sales up 11.2%. Siebe, which has been busy on the acquisitions trail for some time, has seen first half acquisitions contribute ú1.7m in operating profits on sales of ú20.3m. In addition, companies acquired last year reporting for the first time, contributed operating profits of ú6.3m on sales of ú74.6m. Growth was led by Siebe’s process controls division, where Yurko said market share is set to continue growing following new product releases for its Foxboro, Massachusetts-based Foxboro unit’s intelligent automation system, including a Microsoft Corp Windows NT version (CI No 2,732). Operating profits at the Siebe Control Systems division, which is chasing Emmerson Electric and Honeywell Inc for market lead, jumped to ú68m in the half year from ú54m last time, on sales up at ú452.8m from ú371.6m. Yuko said he reckoned market share was now about 12% to 13%, up from 7%, and rising one to two percent a year. Meanwhile Siebe’s biggest single division, which makes temperature and appliance controls, continued to see growth in sales and profits despite a slowdown in demand from its important north American markets, Yurko said. He said volumes were down 3% in north America in the first half with demand also flat in western Europe, but expansion into new markets helped boost the division’s profits by 8% to ú63.6m on sales up 10% at ú416.4m. The division did quite well in very tough conditions, said Yurko. The interim dividend was up 10% at 4.44 pence.
