Kingspan Group has announced that its first-half pretax profit fell to €28.7 million from €37.9 million last year.
But Kingspan proposes to raise the interim dividend 20 per cent to 2.1 cents per share.
Sales in the period to June 30th 2002 were down 17.8 per cent at €360.5 million from €438.3 million previously, and earnings per share before goodwill fell to 15.5 cents from 18.4.
Excluding the effects of Tate US, sales were down 3.8 per cent at €335.6 million, pretax profit rose 5.5 per cent year-on-year to €36.6 million and EPS was up 12.4 per cent from last year, Kingspan said.
Tate made an operating loss of €2.8 million in the period before goodwill amortisation, compared to an operating profit of €9.2 million in the corresponding period last year. It said the business environment can be expected to remain uncertain until year-end and into next year.
PA