Volex (AIM:VLX), the London-listed specialist manufacturer of critical power and data transmission products, said on Monday that group revenue for the six months ended 30 September is expected to be at least $710m, up at least 21% year-on-year on an organic constant-currency basis.
The board said it now expects full-year underlying operating profit to come in towards the upper end of current market expectations, which stand at $150.4m, within a range of $145.9m to $153.3m, based on company-compiled consensus as of 16 October.
Growth has moderated from the 28% constant-currency rate reported for the four months to July, as data-centre programmes that ramped up a year earlier annualise, and Volex said sequential trends remain the better guide, with first-half revenue running approximately 7% above the second half of its last financial year.
Complex Industrial Technology, the division that drove 56.3% organic growth in the year to March, again grew significantly, led by aerospace and defence applications; customers brought forward roughly $10m of revenue to build buffer stock ahead of a US manufacturing site consolidation due to complete by the end of the financial year.
Data centre revenues ran well ahead of the prior-year comparator but below the second half of the last financial year, after supply conditions that had temporarily lifted the group's share of customer requirements normalised, with the next generation of higher-speed products expected to drive further growth as they ramp up during FY2028.
EV and electrification revenue grew strongly, helped by a greater share of the group's largest EV customer's requirements, while Consumer Electricals returned to organic growth and Medical, which took on Kepler SignalTek's patient-to-device offering after completing the acquisition in July, delivered modest growth.
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First-half underlying operating margin is expected to show further progress toward the group's medium-term target of 12%, helped by a higher-margin contribution from Kepler SignalTek and continued operational efficiencies, while covenant leverage at 30 September is expected to be no more than 1.2x, against 0.8x at the last financial year-end.
Volex had repurchased and cancelled shares worth £16.9m by 30 September under its £20m on-market buyback programme launched on 14 July, which it expects to complete during the third quarter of FY2027, and will report half-year results on 12 November.