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Chemicals and personal care business Elementis cautioned on outlook after reporting a fall in profit as weak market demand conditions kept a lid on growth.
For 2019, pre-tax profit slipped to $61m from $65.4m on-year as revenue increased 6% to $874m.
'Market trading conditions were challenging, with a notable deterioration in our two most cyclically exposed businesses, chromium and energy,' the company said.
Chromium revenue was down 7% to $171m and energy revenue fell 14% to $47m.
The company recommended a total dividend of 8.55 cents per share, up from 8.40 cents per share.
'In the short term, given the challenging market back drop, and the uncertainty around the wider impact of Covid-19, we remain cautious on the 2020 outlook with stable performance expected, supported by the delivery of cost savings and new business opportunities,' Elementis said. 'Overall progress in personal care, coatings and talc is expected to be offset by challenging market conditions in chromium.'
At 9:21am: (LON:ELM) Elementis PLC share price was +1.43p at 99.58p