Kingspan raises profit forecast on booming data centre demand

DUBLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Ireland's Kingspan raised full-year profit guidance on Friday, citing data centre construction operations that the building materials company says are benefiting from a burgeoning tech sector it says is detached from the regular economy.

Shares in the company were up 13% in early trading.

• Kingspan expects full-year trading profit to jump by about 18% to €1.13 billion ($1.30 billion), up from a forecast of €1.05 billion in late April.

• CEO Gene Murtagh told analysts that further trading profit growth to €1.3 billion should be achievable in 2027.

• The company said it can also reasonably expect to break through €10 billion in annual revenue for the first time.

• The insulation specialist's trading profit rose 10% year on year in the first half to €487 million, including a currency hit of €8.4 million and €4.5 million of costs from an abandoned IPO of its ADVNSYS data centre business.

• ADVNSYS, which produces infrastructure such as liquid cooling and air-handling technologies for data centres, increased first half sales by 34%, with its order intake and backlog up more than 100% year on year.

• Kingspan has paused its previously announced €650 million share buyback programme, it said. It had returned €149 million to shareholders by the end of 2025.

• Murtagh said Kingspan will look at larger potential acquisitions but not stretch its net debt beyond two times earnings, against the current ratio of 1.56 times.

• The group invested a total of €233.6 million in the first six months, two thirds of which was on capital expenditure, with new facilities built or commissioned in the United States, Vietnam and Australia.

($1 = 0.8680 euros)

(Reporting by Padraic HalpinEditing by David Goodman)