Spirax-Sarco Engineering posted a higher full-year pre-tax profit on higher sales and said 2008 has started well.

Management also reported that it sees good performance for the full year. Despite the reassurance, shares were off 41p, or 4% to 980p.

For the year ended 31 December the company's pre-tax profit rose 11% to £72.2 million from £65.3 million while revenues grew 9% to £417.3 million from £384.2 million last time.

Mike Townsend, chairman said: 'We will continue to invest in the development and expansion of our business and, assuming that our global markets remain stable, we expect to produce another good performance in 2008.'

The company declared a final dividend of 21.6 pence per share, taking the total dividend to 29.9 pence compared to 26.5 pence last year.