Weir Group ups targets after £187m profit

Weir Group, the pumps engineer firm, today posted full year pre-tax profit ahead of market expectations as strong performances in its minerals and power units offset weakness in its oil and gas business.

Pre-tax profit came in at £187 million, 6% higher than in 2008, on revenues which grew 3% to £1.39 billion.

The company upgraded its expectations for this year, saying it would target a similar level of profitability as in 2009 thanks to a strong nuclear workload and an improving outlook for its upstream business.

Weir said reduced demand for original equipment was mitigated by a higher proportion of aftermarket revenues, including contract wins for the minerals division in Chile and Peru and power generation sales to China.

Weir said it would pay a final dividend of 16.2p, representing a full-year dividend of 21p, higher than the 18.5p it paid in 2008.