Building materials group Kingspan has reported a 16 per cent increase in sales in Ireland, the UK and Europe for the quarter ending September 30th.
In an interim trading statement issued this morning the group said it expects to make a full year operating profit of €62-€65 million.
Kingspan said turnover in the first nine months was up 6 per cent year on year to €865 million. It said a pattern of particularly strong order intake in the second quarter has resulted in a 15 per cent increase in third quarter sales.
It warned that a broad cautionary sense has also crept into expectations for the construction environment in many of its key markets for 2011 and that sales in Ireland remained depressed.
Kingspan said sales of insulation boards were particularly strong, growing by 21 per cent year on year.
In August, the Cavan-based group said that operating profits grew 9.2 per cent in the first half of the year to €33.1 million from €30.2 million during the same period in 2009.
The group said business in the UK was solid given the challenging circumstances and that trading in mainland Europe had continued to build on improvements seen earlier in the year. Central and Eastern Europe sales rose 30 per cent in the quarter, and order intake remained encouraging, up 11 per cent.
The North American construction environment remained subdued, Kingspan said. However, sales grew by 21 per cent, and intake was up 10 per cent in the period.
Kingspan said it expected to acquire the European insulation activities of CRH for €120million, subject to approval, by early 2011.
"The acquisition is expected to be earnings neutral in 2011, and earnings enhancing thereafter," it said. "The deal will be comfortably funded from the Group's current facilities, still leaving Kingspan conservatively geared."
Net debt at the end of October was approximately €140 million, up marginally from the figure of €135.1 million at the end of the second quarter. Kingspan expects to reduce the figure by up to €10million by year end.
Shares in Kingspan were trading in good volumes at €5.93 at 10.30 today, down 1.5 per cent.
