20th Aug 2020 10:58
(Alliance News) -Â PHSC PLC on Thursday maintained its dividend even as annual profit slumped, though noted that earnings have risen in the first quarter of its new financial year.
Aylesford, Kent-based provides health & safety consulting. PHSC refers to Personnel Health & Safety Consultants.
Shares in PHSC were up 53% at 13.78 pence in London on Thursday.
Revenue for the year to March 31 fell 15% to GBP4.4 million from GBP5.2 million a year before, with pretax profit just GBP4,999, down from GBP42,494 after a non-repeating gain of GBP166,270 recorded in the year prior from the sale of an unused property.
Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose to GBP255,203 from GBP115,614, excluding the exceptional property gain.
Sales within B2BSG Solutions Ltd, its security division which predominantly serves the high street retail sector, continued to decline during the year "as a result of the ongoing struggles within the high street retail sector" hitting demand for the unit's services.
Revenue in the security division fell to GBP1.9 million from GBP2.7 million. As a result, the board considered the carrying value of its security division and decided that a further impairment of GBP200,000 "was appropriate".
"Various actions were taken to mitigate the effect of lower sales across the group as a whole, which led to cost savings in a number of areas. In particular, there were lower overheads and premises-related savings across the group. The security division, whilst still loss-making, saw an improvement overall," said PHSC.
The firm maintained its dividend at 1.0 pence for the year.
For the first quarter of the new financial year, the firm said accounts show revenue was GBP820,000 and Ebitda GBP108,300, compared to sales of GBP1.1 million and earnings of GBP84,600 a year ago.
By Lucy Heming;Â [email protected]
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