Kingspan Group Reports Strong First-Half Profit

Kingspan Group, a leading building-and-insulation materials company, announced a rise in pretax profit for the first half of the year. Despite a small slip in revenue, the company remains optimistic about its strategic momentum and expects it to continue throughout the rest of the year.

Financial Performance

During the first half, Kingspan Group recorded a pretax profit of €392.8 million ($427.1 million), surpassing the €387.6 million achieved in the previous year. Although revenue declined from €4.15 billion to €4.08 billion, this was mainly due to weaker sales volumes of insulated panels in certain markets and a slight degree of price deflation, coupled with lower insulation global sales.

Positive Trading Profit

The company's preferred metric, trading profit, also saw a slight increase from €434.2 million to €435.5 million. This figure excludes the amortization of intangibles. Furthermore, the trading margin improved by 20 basis points to 10.7%, primarily driven by strong performance in insulated panels and a favorable mix of sales.

Order Intake and Dividend Declaration

Despite facing a weaker demand comparative, Kingspan Group experienced positive trends in overall order intake volumes over the past months. Additionally, the board declared an interim dividend of 26.3 cents per share, reflecting growth compared to the previous dividend of 25.6 cents.

Future Outlook

Chief Executive Gene Murtagh expressed confidence in the company's future prospects, stating, "As we look to the remainder of the year, we expect continuing strategic momentum supported by a strong development pipeline, an increasingly stable supply chain and pricing environment, and a global decarbonisation drive."