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LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - British engineering group Tomkins Plc said on Thursday year pre-tax profits almost doubled and saw signs of modest improvement in the automobile and industrial sectors.
"The outlook is difficult," Tomkins' new Chief Executive Jim Nicol said during his first conference call with reporters since joining the company in February.
The U.S. automotive market, a major part of Tomkins' business, showed signs that it would likely head into recovery next year, he said.
"It looks like we're now at the bottom of the trough," Nicol added.
Investors have been expecting Nicol to turn the company around. Tomkins, which has been reinventing itself, makes wheels, axles, windscreen wipers, valves, hydraulic hoses, ventilation components, taps, pipe fittings, aluminium and wood window frames, and conveyor systems.
Pre-tax profits rose to 264.4 million pounds ($403.5 million) in the year to April from 144 million pounds in the previous period.
Sales from continuing operations rose 1.2 percent to 3.4 billion pounds. The company's dividend was unchanged at 12 pence per share.
The company was now in the position to look at buying opportunities, Nicol said.
"We have spent a fair amount of time analysing acquisition opportunities...(but) we haven't seen anything we want to pull the trigger on," he said.
Shares in Tomkins gained 2.2 percent to 257-1/2 pence on Wednesday, despite the turmoil in world markets after another U.S. accountancy scandal. The stock has outperformed the FTSE MidCap 250 Index by 37 percent in the past year.