Shares in Scottish engineer Weir Group jumped yesterday after it lifted its full-year profit forecast.
The Glasgow-based group revealed in an upbeat statement on trading for the third quarter to September 26 that it had continued to perform strongly.
It said there had been good growth in revenue and profits, reflecting demand for its products across the mining, oil and gas and power sectors, and the impact of recent acquisitions.
It said results also benefited from a positive foreign-currency effect in the period, notably from the strengthening of the US dollar against sterling.
Recent material transactions included the acquisition on July 4 of a 75% shareholding in Standard Oilfield Services, based in Baku, Azerbaijan, for about £8million in cash.
On August 29 Weir disposed of its Canadian distribution business for £13.2million in cash, and last week the group offloaded the Weir Materials and Foundries operations in Manchester for £10million.
Weir said net debt at September 26 was lower than at June 27 at £261.7million.
It added that £625million of committed revolving credit facilities, expiring in 2011, had been signed, providing further financial headroom to support future growth.
Weir Group said that its continued strong performance in the year to date and foreign-currency effects increased its confidence in the full-year outlook and it expected an increase in profits from continuing operations before tax, amortisation and exceptional items to about £170million.
Its earlier guidance at August 12 was for pre-tax profits from continuing operations before amortisation and one-off items of £165.4million.
The group’s shares added 40.25p, or 8.3%, to 529p on the positive outlook.