Senior has swung to a £22.3 million pre-tax profit and said it had “renewed confidence” as the outlook for its end markets improves.
The engineering firm, which supplies equipment to planemakers including Boeing and the heavy-machinery maker Caterpillar, fell to a £136.3 million loss in the same period of 2020.
Earlier this year Senior rejected repeated takeover approaches from Lone Star Global, the private equity group, which had offered £839 million.
Shares in Senior closed up 15p, or 9.3 per cent, at 177p.
It said last month that it saw “clear signs of recovery” in its end markets such as aerospace and oil and gas. It reiterated that yesterday, saying it had “renewed confidence in our ability to create enhanced value for our investors over the medium term”.
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It still faces “well-publicised headwinds associated with freight and commodity costs” as well as being affected by the semiconductor chip shortage that is hitting car production.
Senior has operations in Cheshire, Lancashire, Hampshire, south Wales, Europe, the US and southeast Asia. It specialises in making ducts and valves that help to control fuel consumption.
It said its second half would be slightly weaker than the first as defence sales could fall, partly due to the divestment of its Senior Aerospace Connecticut unit and lower sales of spares to the military. Revenue for the half year was £332.8 million, down 19 per cent.
