Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (ASX: RWC) has reported its half year result to December 2018, is it a buy?
Reliance Worldwide Corporation is an Australian plumbing supplies and water solutions business, perhaps best known by plumbers for its SharkBite pipe connector. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of push to connect plumbing fittings and specialist water control valves.
What Reliance Worldwide Reported
Reliance Worldwide revealed that net sales grew by 50.1% to $544.2 million, mostly due to the UK based John Guest acquisition. Excluding the acquisition, core net sales were up 7.4% to $389.4 million, with underlying growth of 9.5% on a constant currency basis and adjusting for ‘one-off’ items.
The Americas segment saw double digit growth of underlying sales, on a constant currency basis that growth was 14.3%. John Guest sales were up 13.3% to $154.8 million.
Reported EBITDA grew by 52.3% to $120.7 million (click here to learn what EBITDA means) and adjusted EBITDA (excluding John Guest) went up more than 12%.
Reported profit was 58.4% higher to $65.7 million and reported earnings per share (EPS) went up 5% to 8.4 cents, with adjusted EPS increasing by 20% to 9.6 cents.
According to Reliance Worldwide, John Guest is performing well and is generally exceeding the company’s expectations. Realised synergy benefits in this period were $4.1 million and remain on track to at least meet the previously-advised target of $10 million by the end of FY19.
The plumbing products company said new products are being trialled and successfully launched through major customers including The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Reliance Worldwide Dividend
Reliance Worldwide declared a dividend of 4 cents per share, representing an increase of 14.2% compared to the payment made a year ago.
Is Reliance Worldwide A Buy?
Reliance Worldwide re-affirmed its EBITDA guidance of $280 million to $290 million for FY19, which excludes $10 million of one-off integration costs and expectations that cyclical commodity costs will benefit the company’s costs in the second half.
Reliance seems like a solid industrial business which is growing internationally, so it could be one to watch over the next year. But Brexit could have negative consequences, so until that’s sorted one way or another I wouldn’t want to commit to buy shares. I’d rather buy proven ASX businesses like the ones mentioned in the free report below.
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