28 February 2011 – final results
Revenue and profits both increased significantly despite the tough trading environment. Sales were up 79% to £206.2m (2009: £115.0m) and profit before tax double to £7.0m (2009: £3.5m). Net debt stood at a modest £2.3m at the year end (2009: £5.0m). A final dividend for the year of 3.8p has been declared (2009: 1.7p) giving a total dividend for the year of 6.2p (2009: 3.1p). This represents an increase of 100% and is also within the company’s stated desired level of cover of earnings of 3.75 times.
We were particularly interested to hear that most of the businesses acquired in the past couple of years have traded ahead of expectations. We continue to believe that sensible acquisitions will create value for shareholders. At the current price and in light of these reults we believe that the shares are a BUY.