10th Jun 2020 10:00
(Alliance News) - Vp PLC on Wednesday said its annual performance was "satisfactory" after facing uncertain market conditions in the UK, which the equipment rental firm attributed to December's general election and Brexit.
In the year to March 31, revenue slipped 5.2% to GBP362.9 million from GBP382.8 million, the bulk of the fall down to a 5.5% fall in the UK division. The Harrogate-based firm's International unit had a 1.8% revenue fall.
Pretax profit, meanwhile, dropped 16% to GBP28.4 million from GBP33.6 million. Amortisation & impairment charges soared to GBP16.8 million from GBP4.6 million, while exceptional items fell 82% to GBP1.5 million from GBP8.6 million.
Without these costs, Vp's pretax profit climbed 0.6% to a "record" GBP47.1 million. Operating margins improved to 14.3% from 13.5%.
Chair Jeremy Pilkington said: "The results up until March 31 can be considered a very satisfactory performance, with modest margin and pretax profitt improvement achieved against a highly uncertain economic backdrop with the UK being distracted by Brexit and the general election in December 2019.
"Vp was expecting to see a return to heightened activity levels across our core markets, however the worldwide government restrictions imposed on movement as a results of Covid-19 have had an impact on trading for the current financial year. We are however encouraged that in several sectors, activity has started to pick up."
Vp has decided against making a decision on a final payout for now. Should it not make one, its 8.45 pence interim dividend will be its only one for the year, representing a 72% fall from the 30.20p payout in financial 2019.
Shares in the company were 6.1% lower at 751.00p each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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