Kingspan posts 10% profit rise, halts buybacks to fund growth

Kingspan Group reported a 10% year-on-year increase in first-half trading profit to €487.2 million, despite an €8.4 million currency headwind and €4.5 million in costs tied to exploring an IPO for its AdvnSys data-centre solutions business. Excluding those two items, underlying profit growth was 13%.

Revenue for the period rose 8% to €4.86 billion (9% before currency effects), while EBITDA climbed 9% to €626 million. The board declared an interim dividend of 27.1 cents per share, up from 26.3 cents a year earlier.

The company has paused its €650 million share buyback programme "to preserve dry powder" as it evaluates its development pipeline. Management said it can "reasonably expect" to break through €10 billion in full-year revenue for the first time, and guided to full-year trading profit of €1.125 billion, an 18% increase.

AdvnSys, which serves the technology sector, saw sales jump 34% (36% pre-currency), with order intake and backlog more than doubling year on year. Kingspan described the tech sector as "blasting forward, fully detached from the regular economy and normal building activity."

Capital investment in the first half totalled €233.6 million, of which €155.9 million was organic capex. New facilities are being built or commissioned in Texas, Kentucky, Vietnam, and Australia.