23rd May 2016 06:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mitie Group PLC on Monday said its pretax profit more than doubled in its recent financial year thanks to lower one-off costs, as the FTSE 250 outsourcer launched a share buyback.
However, Mitie's underlying profit only edged higher in the year to the end of March, and its order book for the new year is slightly weaker than a year prior.
Mitie handles facilities management and advises clients on how to cut energy usage. It said its pretax profit more than doubled in the recent year to GBP96.8 million from GBP41.5 million the year earlier, mainly due lower one-off costs.
Operating profit excluding exceptional items was marginally higher, up to GBP128.9 million from GBP128.6 million.
Revenue was slightly lower, down to GBP2.23 billion from GBP2.27 billion, which Mitie attributed to lower discretionary and project spend by its clients. The group expects revenue to grow in the current financial year thanks to a recent flow of facilities management contract wins.
The facilities management business, which represents 84% of Mitie's revenue, delivered a good performance in the year, and its integrated facilities management business accounts will not see any major rebid activity until 2019, underpinning the sales outlook.
Mitie declared a final dividend of 6.7 pence per share, up from 6.5p, taking its total payout for the year up 3.4% to 12.1p from 11.7p. In addition, Mitie announced a GBP20.0 million share buyback to return further cash to shareholders.
The group said it has secured 82% of its projected revenue for the 2017 financial year, down from the 85% it had secured at the same point a year earlier, and said its sales pipeline was GBP9.1 billion, down from GBP9.7 billion. Mitie's order book at the close of the year was also lower year-on-year, down to GBP8.5 billion from GBP9.0 billion.
"We continue to see a range of good outsourcing opportunities across our key markets and anticipate modest growth in the coming year. We remain positive about the group's prospects for the future," said Chief Executive Ruby McGregor-Smith
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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