Halma lifts annual revenue forecast on strong US data centre demand

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(Reuters) -British health and safety device maker Halma raised its annual revenue growth forecast on Thursday after reporting a surge in half-year profit, fuelled by strong U.S. demand for its photonics products used in data centre construction.

Data centers have been at the core of the expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructures, with companies in the supply chain also benefiting from massive investments by technology companies. 

Shares of Halma rose 10% in early trading, and were the top gainers in the blue-chip FTSE 100 index.

A single large-scale cloud service provider accounted for 19% of group revenue in the reported period, up from 14% last year, as it purchased critical photonics solutions for data centre development, Halma said, adding that it expects continued premium growth from this segment in the second half.

Adjusted pretax profit rose 29.3% to 270.5 million pounds ($353.46 million) for the six-month period ended September 30.

The company now expects annual organic revenue growth to be in the mid-teens percentage range on a constant-currency basis, compared with a previous forecast of low double-digit percentage growth.

($1 = 0.7653 pounds)

(Reporting by Unnamalai L and Nithyashree R B in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)