(Alliance News) - Hill & Smith PLC on Thursday said that trading in the first four months of the year has been positive, as it held its annual general meeting.

The Solihull, West Midlands-based provider of infrastructure products said positive trading reflected "continuing strong market demand for infrastructure solutions in the US which more than offset a more challenging market backdrop in the UK".

It added that Engineering Solutions delivered "good organic growth" compared to a record 2023.

Looking ahead, Hill & Smith expects 2024 operating profit to be slightly ahead of the top end of analyst expectations. The company said the current company compiled analyst consensus expectation for 2024 is underlying operating profit of GBP130.8 million with a range of GBP127.5 million to GBP134.7 million. The top end would be 10% higher than the underlying operating profit of GBP122.5 million that Hill & Smith recorded in 2023.

Hill & Smith said: "We remain positive on the medium to longer term outlook, supported by strong market growth drivers for sustainable infrastructure."

The company will release its half-year results on August 8.

Hill & Smith shares rose 3.9% to 2,035.00 pence each late Thursday morning in London.

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor

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