TOP NEWS: Hurricanes Boost Ashtead Group As Finance Chief Steps Down

6th Mar 2018 08:24

LONDON (Alliance News) - Equipment rental firm Ashtead Group PLC said Tuesday it recorded strong profit and revenue growth in the third quarter of its financial year, while it also announced the departure of Finance Director Suzanne Wood.

On a statutory basis, pretax profit for the three months to January 31 was up 24% year-on-year to GBP194.3 million from GBP171.2 million. Underlying pretax profit for the quarter increased by 26% to GBP205.1 million from GBP178.7 million.

Revenue for the quarter rose 22% to GBP916.1 million from GBP804.5 million, with rental revenue climbing by 24% to GBP845.5 million from GBP729.2 million.

In the first nine months of Ashtead's year, statutory pretax profit was up 18% year-on-year, underlying pretax profit up 24%, revenue 20%, and rental revenue 21%.

Ashtead's Finance Director Suzanne Wood will leave the company at the end of March to spend more time in the US, it said. Her replacement will be Deputy Finance Director Michael Pratt.

In the nine months to January, the company's Sunbelt US business posted revenue of GBP2.37 billion from GBP2.02 billion, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation has increased to GBP1.19 billion from GBP1.01 billion.

Ashtead said rental revenue, which makes up most of the overall group's revenue, has been boosted by the clean-up following the major hurricanes in the US and Caribbean during the autumn, and the company said it estimates revenue booked from these operations to be between USD75.0 million and USD85.0 million.

Ashtead is guiding for capital expenditure for its current year ending in April to be at the upper end of guidance at around GBP1.2 billion, with a similar level for its following financial year.

Chief Executive Geoff Drabble commented: "All our divisions continue to perform well in supportive end markets."

"While currency continues to be a headwind, we expect this to be mitigated by the strong underlying performance in North America. Therefore, we anticipate full year results to be line with prior expectations."

Shares were down 1.9% on Tuesday at the start of trading at 1,991.00 pence each.

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