7th Dec 2021 09:23
(Alliance News) - Ashtead Group PLC on Tuesday raised its full-year expectations and will pay an increased interim dividend following a record first-half performance.
For the half-year that ended October 31, the London-based equipment rental firm saw revenue rise by 19% to USD3.88 billion from USD3.26 billion. In the US alone, revenue rose by 13% to USD3.12 billion from USD2.75 billion a year ago.
Pretax profit jumped by 38% to USD889.8 million from USD645.8 million in the previous year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 18% to USD1.83 billion from USD1.55 billion.
An interim dividend of 12.5 US cents was declared by Ashtead, up 28% from 9.76 cents paid last year.
Following its robust interim performance, Ashtead said it now expects full-year group rental revenue to grow by between 17% and 20%. Previous guidance was for growth of between 13% and 16%.
This follows raised full-year rental revenue growth expectations within the key US market, which were raised to 18% to 20% from 13% to 16%. Rental revenue growth expectations for the UK and Canadian markets remained unchanged.
Chief Executive Brendan Horgan said: "The group's strong performance continues with rental revenue up 20% for the half year over the prior year, but more importantly up 14% when compared with the first half of 2019/20, both at constant currency."
He added: "Our business has strong momentum in supportive markets...Notwithstanding the volatility that continues to arise from Covid, the fundamentals of our business are strong and we now expect full-year performance to be ahead of our previous expectations."
Shares in Ashtead were up 2.7% at 6,362.19 pence on Tuesday morning in London.
By Heather Rydings; [email protected]
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