While headline profitability was in line with the prior year, there was plenty of evidence in the FY25 results which demonstrated that strategic actions are working, notably in the UK. With operationally well-invested businesses, leading market positions and a strong balance sheet, Norcros has clear scope for both organic and acquisitive growth from this platform.
Group EBIT was in line with consensus and the prior year at £43.2m. For ongoing operations, revenue increased by 0.9% LFL CER with EBIT up £0.5m. UK operations performed relatively well throughout FY25 but delivered a particularly strong H2 profit performance. This follows actions taken to further strengthen brand positions through new product and service infrastructure developments. In contrast, South African operations were more challenged by local economy and market developments.
Management has maintained guidance for FY26, implicitly the regional mix is likely to tilt slightly more in favour of UK profitability at the expense of South Africa in our view (FY25 split 90:10). There is a partial blind spot here until the outcome of the JTSA strategic review is announced, but for now we make only minor net changes to our estimates – with modest EPS upgrades to existing forecasts.
Given group cash flow characteristics and peer group valuation metrics, we raise our fair value to 300p / share (from 254p).
