12th Feb 2014 09:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Speedy Hire PLC Wednesday said it is confident that it will meet its expectations for the current financial year, as growth in the UK offsets a downturn in its international business in the wake of its disclosure of accounting irregularities in those operations.
It said the investigations by Addleshaw Goddard and Deloitte into the accounting irregularities in the International business are nearing a conclusion and Speedy Hire is expecting to announce a summary of the financial impact "shortly".
It said revenues in the UK and Ireland, before planned disposals of hire fleet, were up 3.3% in its fiscal third quarter, with trading for the financial year to date in line with the same period in the previous year. It said the performance was being driven by new contract wins and as it mobilised contracts won earlier in the year.
"In International, a new management team is being built and an optimum structure developed to ensure integration and support across the group. Speedy continues to deliver on its key contracts and the Middle East remains an important target market for the group," it said.
"Whilst performance in International is running behind expectation, the UK performance to date gives the board confidence that the group will meet its expectations for the full financial year," the company said in an interim management statement.
Speedy Hire will publish a trading update March 26 and will announce the results for the year to end-March on May 13.
In January, the company promoted Chief Operating Officer Mark Rogerson to the chief executive role with immediate effect, after former CEO Steve Corcoran and the finance chief of the international unit both stood down in the wake of the discovery of the accounting irregularities at the international unit.
The irregularities, which involved the mis-statement of a number of accounting balances within the international business over recent accounting periods, were discovered in November. At that time, it has said it expected a total impact of around GBP4.5 million to GBP5.0 million, reducing pretax profit in the current financial year by about GBP3.0 million.
Speedy Hire shares were down 1.5% at 64 pence early Wednesday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Speedy Hire