The price of shares in FTSE 250 chemicals business Synthomer (LON:SYNT) dropped by 4.87% to 453.40p (as of 10:10 GMT) after statutory pre-tax profits for the year ended 31st December fell by 79.8%. Revenues and underlying profits both saw growth, but a range of impairments and restructuring costs impacted earnings.
Chair Caroline Johnstone commented: “Thanks to the dedication and hard work of our employees, and the differentiation and diversification of the business, Synthomer has delivered a strong performance in the face of COVID-19. We have produced record profits, de‑leveraged and are well funded for future growth. This performance is testament to the consistent delivery of our strategy and the investments we have made over the past five years.
“Throughout 2020, all our sites continued to produce without any significant interruption and we delivered record volumes to our customers. Alongside this, the business successfully completed and integrated the largest acquisition in its history, largely on a remote basis. Our business model has proven resilient in the toughest of circumstances.
“As we look to the future, the business is in a strong position. Whilst the Group will continue to adapt its operations in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, at this stage we expect no meaningful disruption. The Board is confident that the benefits of the OMNOVA acquisition, recent investment in new capacity, further efficiency measures and a proven strategy will underpin future growth. The current performance of our Performance Elastomers business, driven by exceptional demand for Nitrile latex as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, may drive particularly strong one-off profitability in 2021, but we expect this to return to more normal levels as we move into 2022“.