Business highlights
- Overall the Group produced a good performance in an uncertain macro-economic environment
- Invensys Operations Management continued to perform well in the first half with improvements in revenue, operating profit and operating margin driven by conversion of its large order book and strong growth in higher margin Software revenue
- As expected, Invensys Rail had delays in mobilisation of some of the large contracts awarded in H2 last year and in the letting of contracts under the Network Rail framework agreements; material progress is expected in H2
- Invensys Controls experienced softening demand in Appliance; good progress is expected in Commercial and Wholesale in H2
Financial performance - continuing operations
- Order intake was £1,044 million (H1 11/12: £1,086 million), down 2% at CER due mainly to the timing of orders at Invensys Operations Management and Invensys Controls
- Revenue was £1,200 million (H1 11/12: £1,244 million), down 2% at CER, with good growth in Invensys Operations Management more than offset by an expected decline at Invensys Rail
- Operating profit was £102 million (H1 11/12 £102 million), up 2% at CER, with an expected weaker performance from Invensys Rail offset by Invensys Operations Management
- Underlying earnings per share increased by 10% to 7.6p (H1 11/12: 6.9p) mainly due to a reduction in restructuring costs
- Operating cash inflow was £27 million (H1 11/12: £11 million outflow) with operating cash conversion of 26% mainly due to the investment in working capital in our major projects ahead of payment milestones
- Net cash was £175 million (31 March 2012: £262 million) with the reduction mainly due to working capital and pension payments
- The IAS 19 pension liability was £490 million (31 March 2012: £426 million), in part reflecting continued low interest rates
- Interim dividend increased by 6% to 1.75p per share (H1 11/12: 1.65p per share)
Outlook
Subject to any significant changes to the global macro-economic environment, our good first half performance and strong order book supports our view that we will improve our performance for the year as a whole
