Superglass shares surge on upbeat forecasts

Shares in insulation manufacturer Superglass leapt yesterday after it issued an upbeat statement on the last six months’ trading and said that a long-hoped-for boost from a government-backed scheme may finally be under way.

The Stirling-based firm said sales were “significantly ahead of the equivalent period last year”, costs were falling and it had been able to increase its prices.

It added that in the first few weeks of this year Britain’s energy firms had increased their efforts to promote the UK government’s Cert scheme to insulate homes. Superglass had blamed a poor uptake of Cert for the trading difficulties which led to it having to recapitalise late last year with a share issue and debt-for-equity swap.

The group said its net debt position was now better than projected at the time of the refinancing, while the capital investment programme launched by chief executive Alex McLeod to upgrade the firm’s Scottish plant was progressing “to schedule and within budget”.

But the firm stressed that the recovery plan was still at an early stage and market conditions remained challenging.It said: “With increased volumes from Cert, increased selling prices and the benefits of sales specification activity beginning to take effect, results for 2011-12 will, as expected, be strongly second-half-weighted.”

Shares in Superglass closed 18 per cent higher at 22.5p.