Kingspan eyeing 30% rise in annual trading profit

Specialist building solutions group Kingspan is targeting a 30% improvement in trading profit this year.

In its latest trading update, published yesterday, the Co Cavan-headquartered environmental and insulation- focused building materials group reported a 13% year-on-year increase in revenues for the first nine months of the year to €2.27bn and said that it is on course to beat expectations for the year as a whole.

Kingspan said: “Assuming current exchange rates prevail, we expect to deliver a full year trading profit of approximately €335m, over 30% ahead of prior year, conscious that much of the seasonally variable fourth quarter remains.”

As well as being up year-on-year, the forecast points to Kingspan’s profits beating analyst estimates by 8%. Net debt, currently standing at €466m, is expected to reduce to €400m by the end of the year.

In the third quarter, group sales rose by 5% year-on-year.

In August, Kingspan reported record first-half figures and said it was eyeing 15% higher annual revenues this year, which would see it comfortably breach €3bn.

Kingspan shares were slightly down at around €22.78 in Dublin yesterday, and are still down froma price of €25.10 they touched at the start of this year.

However, they are well recovered from the €18.09 low they hit after Britain’s EU referendum vote in June.

Kingspan saw a better-than-expected performance from its UK operations in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and yesterday said the year to date has seen solid revenue growth across all its divisions.

That was led by a 17% annualised increase in its core insulated panels arm.