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UK's Johnson Matthey misses out on full-year revenue estimates on lower rare-earth element rates

Johnson Matthey (JM) missed market expectations for fullyear income and pretax earnings on Thursday, hurt by lower prices for platinum group metals, although the company anticipates that to remain steady in the neartomedium term.

The centuries-old British firm, which traces its roots back to checking the purity of rare-earth elements, posted a 14% drop in its full-year earnings to 12.84 billion pounds ($ 16.32 billion).

It missed company-compiled quotes of 13.79 billion pounds typically.

PGM rates fell in 2015 as vehicle and commercial users bought more metal than they needed during 2020-2022 to reduce price and supply threats and had been consuming the excess inventory.

Prices, nevertheless, stabilised in the 2nd half of the year and the business expects them to stay stable in the near-to-medium term, it said.

JM reported a 12% drop in underlying earnings before tax to 326 million pounds and likewise missed out on experts' average estimate of 332.1 million pounds.

Shares in the company dropped as much as 5% earlier in the day however recuperated losses and were last down 0.7% at 0909 GMT.

JM upgraded its cost savings target to 200 million pounds by the end of 2024-25. It had actually started a cost-cutting programme in 2022 to conserve 150 million pounds in expenditures per year by 2024-25.

The firm has actually raised rates of items and cut expenses by axing hundreds of jobs and closing down producing sites to secure profit and balance out the impact of lower precious metal costs and currency swings.

In general, the company anticipates at least mid-single digit growth in operating performance, excluding its divested Value Companies for 2024-25 at constant precious metal rates and consistent currency.

JM also showed additional cost hikes this year, with CEO Liam Condon saying, We're experiencing inflation which we need to hand down to our clients that will inevitably include price boosts in particular areas.

(source: Reuters)