9th Mar 2016 08:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Infrastructure products and galvanising services company Hill & Smith Holdings PLC on Wednesday said its underlying profit beat its expectations in 2015 on robust revenue growth, though reported profit was dragged lower by impairment costs.
The company said its underlying pretax profit grew to GBP53.0 million from GBP46.0 million, helped by an improvement in underlying operating margins to 12.0% from 10.8% and by revenue growing to GBP467.5 million from GBP454.7 million.
However, adding in the one-off items that underlying number strips out, pretax profit fell to GBP33.2 million from GBP36.9 million, driven by a GBP15.7 million impairment charge booked on The Paterson Group, which has continued to perform below expectations since being acquired in 2011.
Despite that, Hill & Smith said 2015 was a robust year operationally, as it benefited from the UK Road Investment Strategy and Smart Motorways programmes getting underway. Work for its Utilities division also remained good in the UK and US, while its galvanising business performed well in the UK and US too, offsetting a weaker French market.
The group will pay a final dividend of 13.6 pence per share, taking its total dividend up 15% year-on-year to 20.7p, and it said it remains confident on 2016, with the outlook strong for its key end markets.
"2015 has been another excellent year of progress for Hill & Smith and, despite uncertain economic conditions, we delivered profit growth ahead of our earlier expectations. Overall, although some markets remain challenging, 2016 is again expected to be a year of good progress," said Chief Executive Derek Muir.
Hill & Smith shares were up 4.1% to 781.00p on Wednesday morning, one of the best performers in the FTSE All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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