
11SENIOR PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2022
STRATEGIC REPORT / CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S STATEMENT
of our Aerospace businesses. We see that
continuing to be the situation for some time
given the welcome increase in civil aircraft
production rates required by the industry to
satisfy the strong demand from airlines and
aircraft lessors. We continue to work closely
with our suppliers and customers to minimise
any potential disruption. Very recently, the
situation has been compounded by a fire at
one of our key suppliers in Thailand. We are
working closely with the supplier and our
customers to assess and mitigate the specific
impact of the fire.
Adjusted profit before tax increased to
£20.1m (2021 – £(1.9)m loss). The adjusted
tax charge was £2.0m (2021 – £2.6m credit).
Adjusted earnings per share increased to
4.36pence (2021 – 0.17 pence).
Reported profit before tax was £22.4m. The
2021 reported profit before tax was £23.7m,
having benefited from the profit on the sale of
our Senior Aerospace Connecticut business
during that period. Basic earnings per share
was 4.86 pence (2021 – 5.82 pence).
The Group delivered an excellent cash
performance in 2022 generating free cash
inflow of £27.7m (2021 – £14.0m), an
increaseof 98% over the prior year, driven
bythe significant increase in profits.
Grossinvestment in capital expenditure
was£30.5m (2021 – £21.3m), which was
0.8times depreciation excluding the impact
ofIFRS 16 (2021 – 0.6 times). Cash outflows
from working capital were £12.1m (2021 –
£2.6m) reflecting increased activity levels and
the need to hold some tactical buffer stocks.
However, our effective management of
working capital helped to deliver a small
decrease as a percentage of sales to 15.5%
(2021 – 15.6%). The Group had net cash
outflow of £2.6m (2021 – £57.7m inflow)
in2022, due to free cash inflow of £27.7m
(2021 – £14.0m), offset by £30.3m cash
outflows related to corporate undertakings
and restructuring activity, interim dividend
payments and purchase of own shares
(2021– £43.7m inflows).
Net debt at the end of December 2022
was£178.9m (including capitalised leases
of£78.4m), an increase of £25.8m from
December 2021, after taking into account
£25.3m consideration for the acquisition of
Spencer Aerospace, adverse currency
movements of £14.2m and a £9.0m increase
for lease movements. The Group’s financial
position remains robust, with a healthy
balance sheet and period end net debt to
EBITDA of 1.47x (December 2021 – 1.87x).
Return on capital employed (ROCE) increased
by 370 basis points to 4.7% (2021 – 1.0%).
The increase in ROCE reflected the significant
increase in profitability, while managing the
increase in capital employed which was
mainly due to the acquisition of Spencer
Aerospace. This improvement in ROCE is an
important step to delivering our Group ROCE
target of 13.5% over the medium term.
In line with the Board’s decision from earlier in
the year to reinstate dividends, and reflecting
confidence in the Group’s performance, financial
position and future prospects, the Board is
proposing a final dividend of 1.00 pence per
share (2021 – nil pence) and this will be paid on
26 May 2023 to shareholders on the register at
close of business on 28 April 2023. This would
bring total dividends, paid andproposed for
2022 to 1.30 pence per share. Wewill continue
to follow a progressive dividend policy reflecting
earnings per share, free cash flow generation,
market conditions and dividend cover over the
medium term.
Delivery of Group Strategy
Senior has a compelling strategy to maximise
value for shareholders.
Our renewed Purpose is "we help engineer the
transition to a sustainable world for the benefit
of all our stakeholders". We do this by:
• Using our technology expertise in fluid
conveyance and thermal management to
provide safe and innovative products for
demanding applications in some of the
mosthostile environments.
• Enabling our customers, who operate in the
hardest-to-decarbonise sectors, to transition
to low carbon and clean energy solutions.
• Staying at the forefront of climate
disclosureand action by ensuring
ourownoperations achieve our
NetZerocommitments.
Complementing this, our vision is to be a trusted
and collaborative high value-added engineering
and manufacturing company producing
sustainable growth in operating profit, cash flow
and shareholder value.
To achieve our strategy, we will:
• strengthen our strategic focus on IP-rich
fluidconveyance and thermal
managementproducts;
• organically grow the Aerostructures
businessby fully utilising our world class
globalfootprint;
• maintain a strong focus on lean
manufacturingand operational efficiency
through our Senior Operating System;
• execute on our portfolio optimisation
strategyto maximise value creation;
• maintain our sector leading
sustainabilityperformance;
• drive intrinsic strong cash generation
anddeliver a minimum of 13.5% ROCE
overthe medium term.
Our strategic focus and expertise in fluid
conveyance and thermal management
technology and capabilities is supported by
extensive design and manufacturing process
intellectual property and know-how. We develop
and supply proprietary products, sub-systems
and systems for our customers’ demanding
applications across a range of diverse and
attractive end markets. Our products are key
enablers of pivotal technologies which are
delivering emissions reduction and
environmental efficiency and are highly relevant
as the world transitions towards a low-carbon
economy. Senior has developed novel solutions
for low and zero carbon applications and we are
involved in a range of research and development
projects that support the drive for electrification
and hydrogen propulsion systems on land and
inthe air. This is discussed further on pages 18
to 21 and 44 to 49.
As well as our businesses being actively
focused on new product offerings for the
transition to a low carbon world, we continue
tobe actively involved in making conventional
technology cleaner to bridge the gap between
both worlds. In addition, Senior's end-markets
are evolving to reflect the global effort to
achieve net zero carbon emissions. Senior's
technology and product roadmap is aligned
tothese trends with a product development
strategy that is compatible with our focus
onsustainability.
This well-defined strategy, along with
ourwell-capitalised businesses, provides
asolidfoundation to support our future
growthaspirations.
In June 2022, we announced the strategic
acquisition of substantially all of the assets
ofSpencer Aerospace Manufacturing, LLC
(“Spencer Aerospace”), which completed
inNovember. The acquisition marks a further
step in our well-defined strategy and is part of
our wider objective of optimising our portfolio
and maximising value for shareholders.
Theacquisition enhances Senior's industry-
leading fluid conveyance capabilities, expanding
our capability to produce higher level assemblies
and sub-systems and with the potential to
penetrate new markets such as hydrogen
fittings for power and infrastructure applications.
While Senior has existing hydraulic fluid fittings
expertise, our customers have been strongly
encouraging us to increase our presence and,
following the acquisition, our combined
expertise and market reach will allow us to
respond decisively and accelerate growth as
weleverage Senior’s strong relationships with
OEMs, Tier 1 integrators, and aftermarket
customers around the world to open new
opportunities for Spencer Aerospace.
The strategy for Aerostructures asits core
markets continue to recover is to focus
anddrive:
• filling our existing capacity;
• pursuing some further diversification
intoSpace and Defence; and
• growing market share profitably
inCivilAerospace.
We saw good progress in our Aerostructures
businesses in 2022 and remain confident of
further performance improvement as production
volumes continue to ramp.