Johnson Matthey profits rise, expects stronger year ahead
LONDON (Reuters) - Johnson Matthey , the world's largest autocatalysts maker, said on Thursday that it expects its performance to improve in the next financial year as it posted a small increase in annual profit, helped by higher sales of catalysts in Europe.
The UK-based speciality chemicals company reported underlying pre-tax profit of 440.1 million pounds ($674.6 million) for the year to the end of March, up from 427.3 million pounds the previous year, helped by stricter EU regulation on vehicle emissions which boosted sales of its catalysts.
That compares with a company-provided analysts' consensus of£437.3 million pounds.
(Reporting by Silvia Antonioli; Editing by Pravin Char)
