Building materials group Kingspan said it expects to deliver a trading profit of €105 million for the fourth quarter, up 10 per cent on same period last year.
In an interim statement, the company said revenue for the nine-month period to the end of September rose 1.6 per cent to €1.16 billion.
However, it warned the pace of sales growth moderated through the third quarter, decreasing by 0.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2011.
“While it is clearly difficult to fully counter persistent economic and construction weaknesses, which have the potential to become more pronounced in early 2013, the structural and global dimensions to Kingspan's business should go some way to offsetting this, as it has done in the past.”
“Growing market penetration, a strong R&D pipeline, resilient refurbishment activity and driving the returns from recent acquisitions should all combine to move Kingspan forward.”
The company said sentiment in its end markets remained relatively subdued in the first six months of the year as a result of lack of confidence in Europe and a stasis in the US commercial construction market.
Kingspan said Australian construction markets were evidently slowing although its sales continued to grow "reflecting improving levels of market penetration".
