(RTTNews) - Engineering and manufacturing company Tomkins plc (TKS: News ) Thursday reported a loss for the first half of fiscal 2009, compared with a profit last year, hurt by lower sales and higher restructuring costs. On an adjusted basis, the company reported a profit, which was significantly down year-over-year. The company also said that market conditions remain uncertain and sees some modest improvement in the second half.

The company's first-half loss after tax was $118.1 million, compared with a restated profit of $13.6 million a year ago. Loss for the period attributable to equity shareholders was $123.9 million or 14.07 cents per share, in comparison with a restated profit attributable to equity shareholders of $2.9 million or 0.33 cents per share last year.

The company also reported a loss from continuing operations of $118.1 million, versus a profit from continuing operations of $14.4 million in the prior-year period.

Adjusted operating profit was $82.3 million, a sharp decline from $242.7 million in the prior-year period. Adjusted earnings per share declined to 2.99 cents from 16.84 cents in the previous year.

Tomkins also reported six-month period sales of $2.00 billion, lower than $2.93 billion in the same period last year.

Sales from ongoing segments were $1.97 billion, down from $2.77 billion in the previous year. Most of the group's end markets weakened significantly, leading to a corresponding decline in sales volumes across the group, Tomkins said.
Commenting on the results, David Newlands, Chairman, stated, "Conditions in our end markets continued to deteriorate throughout the first half of 2009 which negatively impacted Group trading."

"The rate of deterioration in some of these markets has slowed as evidenced by trading in June and July, however the outlook remains uncertain. Management continues its disciplined approach to cost containment and restructuring across the Group, which remains on track," Newlands noted.

Based on segments, Industrial & Automotive total sales declined to $1.45 billion from $2.22 billion in the prior-year period. Power Transmission sales were $801.1 million, compared with $1.13 billion a year ago. Fluid Power sales slid to $281.9 million from last year's $443.4 million. Sensors & Valves sales totaled $135 million, down from $225.2 million in the same period last year.

Building Products sales reached $554.8 million, down from last year's $706.6 million. Sales from ongoing segments were $519.6 million, compared with $630.9 million in the previous year. Air Distribution sales dropped to $446.2 million from $521.3 million in the first half of 2008. Bathware sales also were lower at $73.4 million compared with $109.6 million in the previous year.

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