30th Jan 2019 10:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Hargreaves Services PLC on Wednesday said its interim loss has widened significantly despite double-digit revenue growth.
The coal distributor and industrial services provider reported a widened loss of GBP6.0 million in the six months to the end of November compared to GBP1.6 million loss reported a year earlier.
Meanwhile, revenue grew in the first half to GBP167.9 million from GBP150.3 million year-on-year.
In the Distribution & Services division revenue grew by 3.9% to GBP152.5 million despite a fall in revenue deriving from the three legacy contracts in engineering services segment Specialist Earthworks.
The Property division's revenue increased to GBP9.4 million from GBP3.1 million due to the timing of surplus land sales.
"Whilst it is pleasing to report growth in revenue and margins from the Distribution & Services business, which is proving to be a progressive source of underlying operating profit, the group suffered a substantial loss following the failure of its tungsten mining customer, Wolf Minerals," said Chair Roger McDowell.
In October, one of the company's customers, Wolf Minerals, announced it had ceased trading and moved into an insolvency process.
As a result, Hargreaves has incurred an exceptional loss of GBP8.1 million, comprising a GBP5.1 million write down of trade debt and GBP3 million of redundancy and other associated costs.
"Despite this setback, the board is confident the Distribution & Services business will continue to provide the group with near term growth and cash generation whilst the Property business becomes established to realise medium and longer term shareholder value," added McDowell.
Hargreaves shares were trading 0.9% lower on Wednesday at 290.00 pence each.
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