13 November 2013 – final results
The conveyor belting and engineering group Fenner has announced its final results for the year to 31 August and as expected these have shown a decline in both revenues and pre-tax profits to £821m and £86.9m (adjusted) respectively. These are falls of 1.2% and 16.4% respectively. Although the first half of the financial year proved difficult due to challenging trading conditions, the second half of the year saw a strong recovery as conditions showed some sign of improvement. Underlying earnings per share declined to 30.1p (2012: 36.1p) but as a sign of confidence in the future, the dividend was raised by 7% to 11.25p from 10.5p. Strong cash generation meant that although the group spent £27.3m on capital expenditure and £62.5m on acquisitions, net debt only increased to £121.1m from £97.7m a year earlier. The group has entered the new financial year in a good position as it is set to benefit from the investments made in recent years in both of its divisions and with a gradually improving global economic environment the current financial year is expected to see a return to growth. With pre-tax profits in the current year likely to move back towards the £100m mark for earnings per share of 34p the shares are a LONG TERM BUY.