Rotork plc (LON:ROR), the market-leading global provider of mission-critical intelligent flow control solutions, has issued the following update for the first quarter period from 1 January to 31 March 2026 (the ‘period’) ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held later today.
Trading update
The Group’s performance in the period was in line with management expectations.
Order intake was down year-on-year by a low single-digit percentage on an OCC1 basis, with good momentum in Chemical, Process and Industrial (CPI) and Water & Power orders offset by an anticipated decline in Oil & Gas, particularly in EMEA.
Revenues were up year-on-year by a low single-digit percentage on an OCC basis. CPI and Water & Power delivered strong growth, driven by sustained momentum in our Target Segments, including continued strength in data centres and good activity across water infrastructure and treatment markets. As expected, Oil & Gas was softer in the period, with Rotork Service delivering continued resilience.
Middle East update
We are pleased to confirm that our colleagues in the Middle East are safe and well. Current conditions have resulted in some project delays in Oil & Gas markets in the region, reflecting wider supply chain constraints and customers prioritising production restarts. However, we remain well positioned to support customers with maintenance and repair activities as production recovers.
While the region continues to experience supply chain disruption, we are actively managing the impact on our own business and have mitigation measures in place to continue to support our customers. We have not seen any material cost inflation in the period and, as demonstrated historically, we retain the ability to implement price increases to protect margins.
Outlook
Whilst we remain mindful of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, our 2026 outlook is unchanged, and we continue to expect further progress on an OCC basis for the Group in 2026. We expect continued good momentum in CPI and Water & Power, with our Target Segments and Rotork Service supporting performance across both divisions.
In Oil & Gas, we continue to expect a stable performance for the year with a greater H2 weighting. Excluding the Middle East, our assumptions remain unchanged, with a higher H2 bias reflecting project phasing through the year. In the Middle East, our outlook now assumes that some of the projects delayed in H1 will be delivered in H2, alongside a modest increase in maintenance and repair activity in the region.
Financial position update
Net cash including lease liabilities at 31 March 2026 was £56.9m (December 2025: £65.3m). As previously announced, during the period we made two small non-core disposals for combined cash proceeds of £22m. As part of our disciplined capital allocation policy, we returned £26.4m to shareholders through our share buyback programme which remains ongoing.
Rotork will publish its 2026 interim results on Tuesday 4 August 2026.
Notes:
¹ Organic constant currency (OCC) results adjust for currency movements, acquisitions and disposals. The prior period results are translated at the current period average exchange rates.
