18th May 2015 06:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - MITIE Group PLC Monday reported a lower pretax profit for its last financial year, as increased costs for completing an exit from its mechanical and electrical engineering construction business and for writedowns in its asset management business offset growth in revenue.
The outsourcing and energy services company reported a pretax profit of GBP41.5 million for the year to end-March, down from GBP68.4 million a year earlier, as it booked a GBP15.9 million loss for the exit from mechanical and electrical engineering construction and a GBP45.7 million charge after an assessment of operational and financial risk on the remaining design and build contracts in its asset management business.
It said these will be the last charges it books for these businesses, and the exit has "significantly reduced the potential volatility of the group's earnings going forward".
Excluding the exceptional costs, its pretax profit rose to GBP114.1 million, from GBP113.3 million, as revenue grew to GBP2.27 billion from GBP2.14 billion driven mainly by growth in its facilities management business which makes up about 85% of group revenue.
"We are focused on generating profits backed by cash, maintaining strong margins and growing the dividend. With a substantial order book and sales pipeline, we are now well placed to deliver good growth. We look ahead with confidence," Chief Executive Ruby McGregor-Smith said.
It said its order book at the end of the year had risen to GBP9.0 billion, from GBP8.7 billion a year earlier, while its sales pipeline had risen to GBP9.7 billion from GBP8.2 billion. It has secured 85% of budgeted revenue for the current financial year, up from 84% a year ago.
MITIE raised its final dividend for its last financial year to 6.5 pence, from 6.1p, bringing the full-year dividend to 11.7p, up from 11.0p.
That came as it cut debt to GBP177.8 million, or 1.2 times headline earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, from GBP186.6 million or 1.3 times headline Ebitda, and return on capital employed improved to 18.6% from 16.9%.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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