16th Oct 2015 06:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ventilation products supplier Volution Group PLC on Friday said it swung to a pretax profit in the year to the end of July thanks to lower financing costs and exceptional items, though its profit, even stripping out those one-offs, surged higher as it grew revenue despite significant currency translation challenges.
Volution said it made a pretax profit of GBP15.5 million in the year, compared to a GBP15.5 million loss a year earlier, helped by substantially lower finance costs, down to GBP2.0 million from GBP21.2 million, and lower one-offs, which totalled GBP700,000 compared to GBP7.8 million. The financing and one-offs were related to the group's flotation in London in June 2014.
Stripping out all these one-offs, however, Volution still increased its pretax profit to GBP27.5 million, nearly double the GBP14.0 million it made a year earlier, while the number would have more than doubled at constant currencies, it said. Revenue increased to GBP130.2 million from GBP120.7 million, up 7.9%, and 12% higher in constant currencies.
Volution said the results were ahead of its expectations, in spite of the currency headwinds it faced, with organic revenue growth coming in at 1.0% and with the remainder driven by the acquisitions of Brüggemann Energiekonzepte GmbH in Germany. Post the year-end, the group also struck a GBP11.6 million deal to acquire Ventilair Group International BVBA, a Belgium and Netherlands-based residential ventilation products company.
The company said its sales in the UK were mixed, with strength in the UK residential new-build sector but with soft markets in the residential repair, maintenance and improvement space. Germany sales nearly-tripled thanks to the Brüggemann acquisition, while revenue from elsewhere in the business ticked higher.
The group said it would pay its maiden final dividend of 2.25 pence per share, bringing its total payout for the year to 3.30 pence.
Volution said it is focused on profitable growth and making further acquisitions in the coming financial year.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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