| Updated:
Morgan Crucible sees growth
British industrial materials firm Morgan Crucible’s first-half underlying pre-tax profit has risen two-thirds, boosted by strong growth across its emerging markets, and said it entered the second half with good trading momentum. The company said it remains on track to achieve its three-year goal of doubling underlying pre-tax profit by 2013. The company’s net debt at the half year end was £244.3m, down 6.2 per cent from last year. Morgan Crucible, which provides carbon technology services for the aerospace and space exploration industries, raised interim dividend by 20 per cent to 3.25p. For the six-months ended 3 July, its underlying pre-tax profit of £59.7m, up from £35.9m a year ago. Revenue rose 12 per cent to £560m.