Smiths hails strong first half

British engineering group Smiths showed its expectations for a strong year today by raising its interim payout to shareholders for the first time since 2001.

The dividend increase of 6% to 9.25p a share was announced after the aerospace-to-medical devices group made pre-tax profits of £155m (€223m) in the six months to January 31, an improvement of 16% on a year earlier.