Spirax Group Plc (SPXSF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hello, and thank you for joining this presentation of Spirax Group's half-year results. I'm Nimesh Patel, Group CEO, and I'm joined by Louisa Burdett, Group CFO. Let me begin with summarizing our performance in the first half. We have again delivered a resilient set of results for the first half, and we remain on track to deliver our full-year guidance. Across the group are together for growth strategy is strengthening our differentiated business model. We are benefiting from our diversified end market exposure and importantly, driving growth ahead of our markets in spite of external conditions is becoming increasingly embedded in how we operate. As a result, we delivered 5% organic sales growth well ahead of IP of one and a half percent. Our organic profit growth was 6%, and the operating margin progressing to 19.8%, with EPS up 9%. We achieved this while continuing to invest in future growth. The group-adjusted operating margin increased 10 basis points organically, with planned investments weighted to the first half. We invested in sales headcount, customer digital connectivity, and digital tools for sales effectiveness. Now looking briefly at the businesses. In STS, sales grew 1%, although demand growth was more than double IP. Sales were below orders as customers specified a small number of deliveries for the second half. So we are carrying both a strong order book and demand momentum into the second half. As expected, the decline in large project demand in China has continued to moderate, partly offset by further growth in MRO and solution sales. This resulted in China being down 1% compared to the 6% decline we saw in the first half of last year. ETS performed very well, with sales growing 11%, supported by strong demand growth across all three divisions and c...