LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Weir Group PLC (WEIR.L), a UK-based company engaged in engineering businesses, said Thursday that it is withdrawing its 2020 guidance issued on 26 February as well as its recommendation to pay a 2019 final dividend, given the level of uncertainty in its main markets due to Covid-19.
The group also said it is curtailing all non-essential capital expenditure so that spending in 2020 will now be significantly lower than its prior outlook.
The Group's trading in the first two months of the year were in line with its expectations across each of its divisions. However, through March, with the significant reduction in oil prices and escalation of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the external environment has changed rapidly, the company noted.
While the Group is now back to full operating capacity in China after its three facilities were forced to shut down in early February, the main impact on its facilities so far has been in the US, UK, South Africa, Peru and Malaysia.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX