Victrex has announced a pleasing set of results this morning, which are slightly ahead of our forecast at the PBT level (£106.4m versus our £103.5m). Revenue (+4% to £263.5m) and volume (+19% to 4,217) had been pre-announced. The outlook is encouraging despite the likely continued impact of weaker oil & gas and Invibio sales during H1’16. Full year guidance is for year on year progress, which is in line with expectations (we are looking for PBT of £110.0m). Commercial highlights include the confirmation of continued opportunities within Consumer Electronics and the expectation that the Magma Oil & Gas mega-programme will approach “meaningful revenue” during 2016. The results also bring confirmation of the new capital allocation framework. There is no special dividend this year, but in future a special representing 50% of net cash will be paid (subject to investment requirements and a minimum available payout of 50p per share).
