17th Mar 2015 11:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Good Energy Group PLC Tuesday said its pretax profit for the year declined due to increased costs and exceptional items related to the refinancing of a loan, despite revenue significantly rising on the back of good customer growth.
The UK renewable energy developer and distributor reported a fall in pretax profit to GBP1.3 million for the year ended December 31, less than half the GBP3.3 million it posted in 2013. Despite revenue rising, administrative costs and costs related to refinancing a loan hampered its profit.
Administrative costs increased by 55% to GBP15.1 million from GBP9.7 million, which Good Energy said was due to increased costs to allow it to serve its growing customer base.
Finance costs increased to GBP2.6 million from GBP719,000, due to increased borrowing and the refinancing of the Hampole loan, which incurred an exceptional cost of GBP900,000.
But revenue rose to GBP57.6 million from GBP40.4 million on the back of a 34% rise in customer numbers. Electricity customers increased by 30%, gas customers by 67% and feed-in tariff administration sites rose by 29%.
"The overall 34% growth in customer numbers is in part attributable to an increased willingness by customers to switch to smaller suppliers. This reflects a continued trend which shows that during 2014, a total of 1.3 million people switched from a larger supplier to a smaller one," said Good Energy.
The company retained its final dividend of 2.3 pence per share, giving a full year dividend of 3.3 pence per share, flat from the previous year.
At the end of December, Good Energy had a cash balance of GBP13.7 million.
Good Energy shares were up 2.6% to 221.00 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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