Auto-focused engineering group Dowlais Group plc said it expects 2025 results to be ahead of previous guidance after a strong end to the financial year, with trading and cash flow coming in ahead of forecasts.
The firm had previously guided to a flat to a mid-single digit decline in adjusted revenue and an adjusted operating margin of between 6.5% and 7.0% in constant currency, with adjusted free cash flow slightly ahead of the prior year.
Adjusted revenues are now tipped to be around £5bn, representing 3.1% growth at constant currencies, with improvements in both the automotive and powder metallurgy businesses.
Adjusted operating profit is expected to be at least £370m, marking a 14% gain on 2024, with the adjusted operating margin predicted to be at least 7.4%, representing an 80 basis-point increase.
"The group's adjusted operating profit improvement reflects the impact of global footprint restructuring initiatives, commercial recoveries from prior volume losses and other ongoing performance improvement actions which are expected to more than offset some operational inefficiencies in two of our plants in North America," Dowlais said in a trading update.
The company, which last year agreed to a £1.2bn acquisition by US peer American Axle & Manufacturing, announced last week that Chinese regulators had approved the tie-up, meaning that all regulatory or antitrust approvals have now been cleared.
As a result, the merger is expected to complete next month with the cancellation of Dowlais shares happening on 4 February.
Dowlais shares were down 0.4% at 94.01p in early deals on Monday.