Final Results

Biffa plc

13 June 2018

RESULTS FOR THE 53 WEEKS ENDED 30 MARCH 2018

Proven strategy, Delivering results

Biffa plc ('Biffa', 'the Group' or 'the Company'), a leading UK integrated waste management company, announces results for the 53 weeks ended 30 March 2018, with strong growth in revenue, profits and cash flows and good progress in execution of its proven strategy.

BUSINESS OVERVIEW

· Another pleasing year of organic and acquisitive growth:

- Net Revenue1 up 8.8% to £977.7m (2017: £898.8m) (4.4% organic and 4.4% acquired)

- Underlying EBITDA2 up 8.9% to £150.0m (2017: £137.7m)

- Underlying Operating Profit3 up 10% to £81.2m (2017: £73.8m)

- Underlying Profit after Tax4 up 33.8% to £47.9m (2017: £35.8m); statutory profit after tax £31.1m (2017: £(10.9)m)

- Underlying EPS of 19.2p; statutory EPS of 12.4p

- Final dividend of 4.53p per share proposed (2017: 2.40p5)

· Strong cash flow and capital structure:

- Underlying Free Cash Flow6 £44.4m (2017: £28.8m)

- Year end Reported Net Debt7 £279.0m (1.9x Underlying EBITDA)

- Significant committed available liquidity to pursue established strategy

· Short term challenges in recycling markets being addressed

· Continued momentum in delivering strategy:

- Seven acquisitions completed (total £47.1m investment) with strong pipeline of opportunities

- Recent infrastructure developments delivering as expected and more planned

- Good progress in evaluation of energy from waste (EfW) opportunity with Covanta. Expect to proceed subject to final evaluation

· Board's expectations for the year ahead unchanged

Underlying performance measures are not defined within accounting standards. We have provided definitions of these terms on page 4, and reconciliations within note 3 to the financial statements

Ian Wakelin, Chief Executive of Biffa, said:

''We are delighted to report another year of strong performance by Biffa. Our strategy remains unchanged; to grow market share, develop services and infrastructure, and optimise systems and processes, and we are pleased with the progress made against all three of these strategic goals.

In the year we completed seven acquisitions spread across a wide area of the country, demonstrating the strength of our platform into which we can consolidate acquisitions. The pipeline of potential targets remains strong, and we expect to make further acquisitions in the coming year.

We have made good progress in evaluating the investment opportunity we have in energy from waste alongside our partners Covanta and expect to be able to announce an investment in due course. The UK has a significant shortage of energy from waste treatment capacity and we are well placed to facilitate and invest in these much-needed facilities.

The recycling markets continue to be challenging, however the environmental and economic drivers of recycling remain compelling and the actions we are taking position us well for the future.

We believe Biffa is well positioned in all of the its key markets and we look forward with confidence.''

DIVISIONAL PERFORMANCE

Industrial & Commercial

Municipal

Resource Recovery & Treatment

o Polymers expansion fully commissioned and delivering to plan

o Opening of rail hubs for transport and disposal of inactive waste

o Landfill pricing and volumes remain strong - volumes have increased by 11.8% in the year

o O'Brien new MRF commissioned and acquired operations integrated in the year (c. £6m annualised revenue)

o Swift and decisive response by Biffa: focus on quality, revised terms with local authority partners, diversified end markets and modifying plant operations (to focus on separated paper)

o Situation gradually stabilising: all materials sold for recycling and commodity prices are modestly improving, but headwinds are expected to persist in FY19, with improvement thereafter

o As expected reduction in Underlying Operating Profit in FY19 before returning to growth

o Long term prospects strong - many opportunities to invest to diversify and strengthen offer

Energy

o LFG continued volume decline as expected

o Energy generation forward sales:

- FY19 89% sold @ £44.84/MWh

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

There will be a presentation of the results to analysts and investors at 0930 am today (13 June 2018) at Instinctif, 65 Gresham Street, EC2V 7NQ. To register your attendance please contact [email protected]

A live audio webcast of the presentation will be available on Biffa's website. Please pre-register at www.biffa.co.uk

The presentation slides will be added to Biffa's website prior to the analyst meeting.

PUBLICATION OF ANNUAL REPORT

The Company will publish its Annual Report and Accounts 2018 on Tuesday 19 June. This document will be available to view on the Company's website at www.biffa.co.uk and is also being submitted to the National Storage Mechanism for inspection at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm.

ENQUIRIES:

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to the usual risk factors and uncertainties associated with the Company's business. Whilst the Company believes the expectations reflected herein to be reasonable in light of the information available to them at this time, the actual outcome may be materially different owing to factors beyond the Company's control or within the Company's control where, for example, the Company decides on a change of plan or strategy. Accordingly, no reliance may be placed on the figures contained in such forward-looking statements.

Use of Alternative Performance Measures

Throughout the release we use a number of alternative (or non IFRS) performance measures to provide users with a clearer picture of the performance of the business. This is in line with how management monitor and manage the business day to day. Further definitions and details are provided below

Technical Notes:

See Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements for basis of preparation and definitions of all non-statutory measures

1 Revenue excluding Landfill Tax

2 Profit before depreciation and amortisation, exceptional items, impact of real discount rate changes to landfill provisions, finance costs and taxation

3 Profit before exceptional items, amortisation of acquisition intangibles, impact of real discount rate changes to landfill provisions, finance costs and taxation

4 Profit for the period as adjusted for non-underlying operating items (exceptional items, amortisation of acquisition intangibles and impact of real discount rate change to landfill provisions), non-underlying net interest items and non-underlying taxation

5 Dividend in respect of period since IPO

6 Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents excluding dividends, restructuring and exceptional items, acquisitions, movement in financial assets and movements in borrowings or share capital (but including finance lease principal payments)

7 Excludes £43.8m notional liability in respect of EVP instrument

8 Calculated as a percentage of statutory revenue

9 Total Underlying Operating Profit includes central costs of £17.4m (£17.2m in prior year)

10 Results include impact of other items as detailed in Note 3 and explained in the Financial Review below

Chairman's Statement

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the second full year results of Biffa since the IPO in October 2016. The year has of course been overshadowed by the very sad and sudden passing of Steve Marshall, our previous Chairman, in September last year. The shareholders and Biffa owe a great deal to Steve as it was through his leadership and direction of the Board that we achieved a successful Stock Exchange Listing. Steve will be sadly missed.

When I joined the Board in September 2016 I was new to the waste management industry. It has been a steep and quick learning curve. I have been impressed with the strength, experience and knowledge of the business leadership, the depth of the strategic and operational discussions, the organisation and integrity of our business operations and the quality of the information available to the Board.

Business and Markets

Biffa's business is exclusively focused on waste management in the UK. Our business has strong competitive positions in markets which have attractive long-term characteristics.

Our success - and the value we deliver in the long run to our investors - derives from our ability to achieve attractive and sustainable returns on the investments we make in the various services we provide throughout the waste management supply chain.

The performance of our I&C collections business is driven by modest market growth augmented by share gains and targeted acquisitions in a fragmented industry. In the Municipal division the market demands a very efficient, cost-effective operation and keen price competitiveness. Our RR&T and Energy divisions create value either through the recovery and recycling of materials or through the generation of energy whilst keenly monitoring commodity and energy prices. Efficient management of processes and highly effective logistics are key drivers of success.

Strategy and Capital Allocation

Prior to the IPO a clear strategy was developed around 'Grow' (organically and through acquisition), 'Develop' (services and infrastructure) and 'Optimise' (our systems and processes). Good progress with this strategy, as set out in the Strategic Report and the 'In Conversation with the Chief Executive Officer' section of the Annual Report and Accounts, has been made by the management during the year. The Board monitors the implementation of the strategy at the Board meetings and through periodic strategy reviews. An integral part of the strategy process is to ensure necessary financing and appropriate capital allocation. Biffa has a strong balance sheet and reliable and predictable free cash flow generation. The strategy for sustainable growth is reinforced by tight controls over capital expenditure and working capital management with appropriate review by the Board of investments and acquisitions.

Shareholder Returns

Our financial performance is discussed in some detail in the Financial Review. We have again delivered a strong set of financial results meeting or exceeding the market's expectations for revenue, profit, cash flow, net debt, return on capital/operating assets and adjusted earnings per share. During the year our share price showed significant momentum peaking at 263 pence compared with the IPO price of 180 pence in October 2016.

The short-term headwinds arising from the recently announced changes to the Chinese regulations for the import of recycled commodities did initially cause some short-term weakness. However, the underlying intrinsic value of the business continues to grow steadily and Biffa remains strongly positioned over the medium and long term. The Board has proposed a final dividend of 4.53 pence per share bringing the total dividend for the year to 6.70 pence representing a 3.3 per cent yield on the year end share price of 201 pence.

Health and Safety

An excellent record for health, safety and the environment is of paramount importance to our long-term success. We are delighted to report another record year with a further reduction in the lost time injury rate. We will continue to strive to achieve further improvements in performance.

The Board

There have been some changes to the Board following the sad death of Steve Marshall. During the search process to identify the new Chairman, David Martin assumed the role of Interim Chairman. I would like to thank David for stepping into the breach at short notice and in trying circumstances. At the end of the search process, with my appointment as Chairman, I have relinquished my role as Chair of the Audit Committee and this has been assumed temporarily by David Martin in addition to his role as Senior Independent Director. I am delighted to announce that Carol Chesney will join our Board as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee with effect from 12 July 2018. In addition, before the end of the calendar year we will start a process to identify a further Non-Executive Director.

Corporate Governance

We have established processes for corporate governance. Included in the Annual Report is a Governance Report, with an introduction from me, summarising the various processes and activities of the main committees of the Board. The Board aims to strike the right balance between the strategic and entrepreneurial management of the business and the important corporate governance processes.

Employees

I would like to thank our loyal employees for their hard work and commitment during the year. The success of our business is without doubt dependent on their continued support. During the year we have launched a new Sharesave plan that offers employees the opportunity to participate in Biffa's success going forward and the scheme has been very actively supported.

Looking to the Future

Looking to the future we are confident we can address the short-term challenges arising from the changing markets for recycled commodities. Biffa is in attractive markets in which it enjoys a leading competitive position. There is a clear strategy to continue to grow the long-term sustainable value of the business and there is a strong management team in place clearly capable of implementing the strategy.

Ken Lever

Chairman

12 June 2018

Chief Executive's Statement

Performance overview

I am delighted with the performance of the business last year, another year in which we continued to focus on delivering our simple, three-pronged strategy of Growing market share, Developing new services and infrastructure and Optimising our systems and processes. In the year we grew Net Revenue by 8.8% (£78.9m) (and statutory revenue by 8.7% - £86.3m) through a combination of both organic and acquisition growth, increased Underlying Operating Profit by 10.0% to £81.2m, increased statutory profit before tax by £42.0m, generated significant Free Cash Flow and ensured that our balance sheet and available cash liquidity were in a strong position to enable us to continue to invest in the numerous opportunities facing the Group. Away from the financial results I was also pleased with our performance in other areas; once again we have continued to see ongoing improvement in our health, safety and environmental performance. Biffa has been awarded the British Safety Council Sword of Honour this year reflecting the Group's continual focus on trying to make our business a safer place to be.

Growth strategy

Acquisitions

Acquisitions are a fundamental part of our strategy to grow market share and once again I have been pleased with both the quality and level of acquisition activity this year. Biffa operates in an industry where increasing customer demands and expectations make the supply chain logistics of delivering a waste service ever more complex. This dynamic lends itself to organisations of greater size like Biffa with a complete knowledge and operational experience of the end-to-end service delivery. This is clearly generating opportunities for Biffa to acquire smaller businesses, particularly in our I&C division where our strong market presence, national coverage and complex logistical platform provide the opportunities for significant cost and revenue synergies post acquisition in the UK. Of note this year is the geographic spread of our acquisitions; we have acquired businesses in the North East, the North West, London, the South Coast and South Wales. This is testament to the strength and geographic breadth of our operating platform providing us with the opportunity to acquire suitable businesses almost anywhere in the UK. The pipeline of acquisitions we are working on is strong and I expect us to continue to acquire good businesses in key geographies around the UK, primarily focused on our I&C division.

Organic growth

This year we have continued to deliver strong organic growth. This has come from, and will continue, as a result of three main factors. Firstly, we will continue to work on delivering an outstanding customer experience. Secondly, we will continue to proactively manage customer pricing to reflect the breadth and excellent level of customer service delivered by Biffa. Thirdly we will continue to develop ancillary services (such as our newly launched One Call service) and waste processing infrastructure such as the investments we have recently made in our Polymers business and soil treatment facilities.

Reality Gap

We produced our first Reality Gap report in 2015 and repeated the analysis in 2017. At its core is an attempt to understand the key drivers and requirements of residual waste disposal in the UK over the coming 20 years. Our conclusions now are similar to those back in 2015. In summary, there are three main conclusions. Firstly, whilst the UK has performed well over the last 10 years in driving up recycling levels compared with our European counterparts, there is still more that can be achieved, but if recycling levels are to increase further, Government intervention or regulation is needed. We believe that regulation is needed to drive stronger end markets for recyclable products by extending the current producer responsibility regulations. Secondly, there is a deficit of energy recovery facilities in the UK and more energy recovery facilities are needed if we are to maximise the amount of energy that can be generated from residual waste that is left over after recycling levels have been maximised. Thirdly, we believe there is a significant ongoing need for landfill in the UK. We estimate there is approximately 15mTpa of waste generated that cannot be recycled or treated for energy recovery and the most sensible place for this to go is to a well-engineered and managed landfill.

It has been very difficult to secure planning consent for new landfills in the UK over the last 10 years and as a consequence many of the remaining sites are now filling quickly and need replacing.

Energy from Waste

We believe, as outlined in our 'Reality Gap (2017)' report, that the UK has a deficit in energy from waste recovery facilities. In simple terms, even after maximising the amount we recycle as a country, the UK generates more combustible waste than there are facilities to deal with this waste. As one of the UK's largest collectors of waste and with a responsibility to dispose of 2.4mTpa from our I&C collection business, it is in our interest that there is a long-term sustainable disposal infrastructure for waste in the UK and so we are keen to see these needed facilities developed. We are working alongside Covanta, a US listed global waste to energy operator to assess the feasibility of developing two such facilities, one in Leicestershire and one in Cheshire. Subject to satisfactory completion of this feasibility work and our ability to raise suitable project finance we believe these opportunities will offer a significant equity investment opportunity delivering long-term sustainable cash flows with good equity returns.

It is important to appreciate that should we invest in this area we will do so alongside a proven operating partner in Covanta and be investing in a technology which has been well proven around the globe for many years. We are not a business that takes undue technology risk.

China import regulations

Towards the end of 2017, China announced that from 1 March 2018 it would be banning the import of certain recyclable commodities, increase the quality standards required of the remaining recyclable commodities that could be imported and overall seeking to reduce the country's dependency on imported recyclables by restricting import quotas through 2018. China has been and continues to be the world's largest importer of recycled products, which is a fundamental component of the Chinese manufacturing supply chain. The impact of this has been to increase the cost of recycling and reduce, due to falling demand, prices for most recycled commodities. In response to this we have taken the following actions:

We do not believe the changes introduced by China will be reversed. We believe they are the new norm for the recycling industry. As a result of these changes our key recycling assets, which are part of our RR&T division, are currently loss making. The actions outlined above will return these assets to profitability over time, leaving us with a business which has greater protection from commodity price movements. It is important to remember that even with these current challenges, recycling remains a far more cost effective (as well as environmentally sustainable) means of disposing of this type of waste.

Brexit

Brexit is of course an unknown in many ways for all British businesses, however, I do believe our exposure to any downside is probably limited. Firstly, we trade very little with the EU, although we do export some recyclables (mainly glass) and refuse derived fuel into Europe and so we are keen to ensure that frictionless trade in this regard continues. Secondly, we employ a relatively low number of European workers across the Group, however continued access is important in ensuring that we are not exposed to future skills and labour shortages. In terms of environmental policy and regulation much of the UK's environmental agenda in recent times has been driven by directives from Brussels. I don't expect there to be significant change to the UK's policy and regulation post Brexit and indeed look forward to the prospect of the UK driving its own environmental agenda to deal with issues more focused on the UK's current position. Like most businesses we continue to watch the development of Brexit with interest.

Board

Everyone at Biffa was greatly saddened by the news of Steve Marshall's untimely and unexpected death in September of last year. Steve had been our Chairman for almost five years and made a significant contribution to Biffa during that time, acting as a very wise counsel and a great sounding board for our plans for the Group. At a personal level I miss Steve a great deal. I was delighted, however, when Ken Lever agreed to step up to the role of Chairman. Ken has been on our Board since 2016 and, like Steve, has made an immediate impact on the Group; I am sure we will work well together as we continue to grow the business over the coming years. Finally, I am delighted to welcome Carol Chesney to the Board and look forward to working with her in her capacity as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee.

Outlook

I think the outlook for the Group is very positive; we are very well positioned in an increasingly complex industry which lends itself to scale and an understanding of the wider supply chain issues around disposal of waste and recyclables. The Group has many opportunities to deploy capital at attractive returns particularly in continuing to pursue our mergers and acquisitions strategy in I&C, develop further reprocessing and recycling assets in our RR&T division and in energy from waste assets in our Energy division.

However, none of what we have achieved so far or what we intend to achieve in the future would be possible without the continued efforts and talent of our staff and the support the business receives from all of our stakeholders and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued dedication and commitment to the business as we look forward to an exciting and rewarding future.

Ian Wakelin

Chief Executive Officer

12 June 2018

Operating Review

Industrial & Commercial

Highlights

Strong revenue growth of 9.9%: organic revenue growth (4.4%) and revenue from acquired business (5.5%).

Underlying Operating Profit Margin growth from 7.4% to 8.4%. Prior year acquisitions fully integrated while other cost efficiencies and price discipline delivered into the base business.

Current year acquisitions of O'Brien WRS and Amber Engineering are being integrated while the smaller 'infill' acquisitions have been quickly integrated to the wider I&C network. We expect these to perform in line with business case expectations in the year ahead.

Performance Summary

The I&C division has continued to see strong growth with revenues increasing by 9.9% to £574.0m and Underlying Operating Profit increasing by 24.9% to £48.1m. Revenue has grown organically through a combination of price increases and collection volume growth including a number of major business wins such as, Bourne Leisure, KP Snacks, Arcadia and Kerry Foods. Underpinning this is a strong performance in business retention and growth in some of our new services, such as ''One Call' (a 24-hour 'emergency service') and our national asbestos removal offer. The largest cost within the I&C division relates to the disposal of waste. I&C has developed a network of RDF production sites to feed UK EfW facilities and for export to mainland European incinerators. During the year, we have taken the opportunity to add additional RDF production capacity in readiness for new UK EfW plants, while also securing some long-term supply contracts with European offtakers to ensure that we maintain a sustainable disposal strategy. In the second half of the year, a downturn in the global commodities market impacted the benefits from commodity sales, but the division has offset a significant proportion of this through customer price management.

The division continued to identify and convert a number of acquisitions. We completed the purchase of seven businesses across the UK which added annualised revenues of c.£50m. The largest acquisition was O'Brien WRS, which included a large collection and processing business. Through a combination of revenue gains, acquisition integration benefits and strong cost management, the overall Underlying Operating Margin in the division increased from 7.4% to 8.4%.

Market Conditions

UK market waste volumes are relatively stable, but with increased pressure on commodity prices and a 'tightening' in RDF offtake availability, it is increasingly important to have scale to enable access to the lowest cost disposal while operating an efficient collection and processing network. Whilst I&C is well placed to exploit these market conditions, the fragmented nature of the collection marketplace in the UK means that a large number of smaller or regional businesses will come under increasing pressure. We expect this to provide further opportunities to deliver the division's strategy to build scale through acquisitions, which will underpin margin gains through operating efficiencies driven from an increased density of collections.

Strategic Objectives

The I&C division remains focused on driving organic and acquisition revenue growth and delivering operational efficiencies. We expect to achieve growth through targeted sales across all customer channels and by improving our levels of customer retention.

Municipal

Highlights

Another year of strong top line growth delivered, with revenues up 6.9% (3.9% organic, 3.0% acquisition).

Profitability impacted by ongoing competitive market dynamics and some specific contract performance issues.

Excellent client relations - strong service levels and high client satisfaction resulting in significant contract extensions and the win of the Melton Borough contract.

Cory integration completed and delivered in line with targets.

Performance Summary

The Municipal division has once again delivered year-on-year revenue growth, with an 6.9% increase, taking revenue to £194.7m. Underlying Operating Profit was £8.7m. Operating margin reduced to 4.5% this year (2017: 6.0%) due to continuing cost pressures (notably labour-related), higher than anticipated costs associated with contract mobilisations and specific operational challenges in our Leicester City waste processing facility.

Our customer service levels remain high. We recorded 99.96% successful first-time collections and 96% of our clients feel we deliver value for money, figures which no doubt contributed to our success in securing extensions to six contracts and winning the new 10-year contract with Melton Borough Council.

Market Conditions

The market remains competitive and dominated by a small number of large-scale players. The ever-increasing need to innovate and reduce costs means that only experienced operators with a long-term view will prosper. Local government customers have recognised the impact that falling commodity prices can have on service delivery and the trend towards a greater transfer of risk and reward to them is continuing. Partnerships between neighbouring local authorities are now an established procurement route and give larger, longer term opportunities for established companies while limiting the ability of new companies to enter the sector. Local government customers continue to face financial pressures and whilst environmental departments are not immune, the need to provide a statutory service of high quality is paramount. Waste and recycling collections are the most visible service that our local authority customers deliver to the public and our continuity of service excellence means that we are well positioned to work with customers who share these values. The drive for local authorities to operate in a more commercial manner enables innovation and allows us to deliver more direct services to the public (namely, green waste collections, wheeled bin cleaning and services for one-off outside events).

Strategic Objectives

The Municipal division will seek to continue to develop profitability through maintaining a rigid control of costs, developing the customer base through contract extensions and capitalising on business wins. There is scope to develop third party sales and to continue to expand the range of services we are able to supply directly to the end customer. We will seek to continue to innovate within our sector and optimise our service delivery through new and existing technology. The deployment of our first fully electric refuse collection vehicle in the coming year will provide valuable intelligence for the inevitable shift in the market towards low or zero emission vehicles.

Resource Recovery & Treatment

Highlights

A strong year: Net Revenue growth of 13.2% and Underlying Operating Profit growth of 18.1%, from £11.6m to £13.7m. Margin improved from 5.8% to 6.2%.

Landfill volumes remained strong and were up 11.8% on last year. Prices continued to grow.

New projects delivered in the year include a new aggregate treatment and recycling plant at Cold Meece (Staffordshire), rail hubs for inert waste in Manchester and Leeds, and investment in further technology at the Edmonton, North London, MRF.

The expansion of our Biffa Polymers business, which was completed in March 2017, has helped achieve production targets and has contributed to the earnings growth in the year.

In our MRF business, the facilities in the North East acquired with O'Brien WRS further strengthened our operational footprint.

Following regulatory changes in China, we faced challenging markets for recycled materials in the second half of the year.

Performance Summary

The RR&T division delivered strong top line and margin growth in the year despite challenges in the recycling business in the second half of the year. Landfill volumes grew in the year and prices improved. We opened a rail hub, in partnership with GB Railfreight, in Manchester which enables us to transport inactive material (waste that cannot be recycled or used for energy recovery) for disposal at our rail-linked landfill site at Roxby in Lincolnshire. This is proving to be a successful venture and a second rail hub opened in Leeds shortly after the end of the year. As UK landfill sites continue to close, our rail strategy will be key in enabling us to efficiently transport waste over greater distances.

During the previous year, we expanded our food-grade HDPE plant at our award-winning Biffa Polymers business. The facility was commissioned ahead of plan and we have successfully grown throughputs and earnings during the year. Towards the end of the year, we completed the development of our second aggregate treatment and recycling plant at Cold Meece (Staffordshire). In our MRF business, we expanded our footprint in July through the addition of the facilities operated by O'Brien WRS. Following the acquisition, we successfully completed the commissioning of the Teesside facility. During the year, we also delivered a large project, designed to improve fibre and plastic sorting, at the Edmonton, North London, MRF. These projects proved invaluable in the second half of the year when the MRF business experienced the impact of 'Operation National Sword' (the changes in Chinese regulations for the import of recycled materials). There was a significant reduction in the demand for, and prices of, recycled materials, impacting our earnings. However, thanks to the significant investment we have made in our facilities, we are able to meet the enhanced quality standards required of recycled materials. Our business model in the MRF business has been moving towards sharing risk with our local authority customers, with on average c.50% of the commodity price risk now retained by Biffa. This has helped to partially mitigate the impact of falling prices.

Market Conditions

We continue to see growing demand for recovery and treatment services in areas such as organics, aggregates, plastics and hazardous materials. We are particularly pleased to note the heightened awareness of the environmental harm that plastics can cause if not recycled properly. The MRF business is facing a challenging time, with significant price pressure and changing standards which will impact earnings in the short term. However, we see increased acceptance by our local authority customers that contract structures and service models need to evolve to ensure that these essential services are environmentally and economically sustainable. The landfill market continues to be increasingly focused on waste that cannot be recycled or treated for energy recovery, but we continue to see landfill sites fill and close both within the Biffa portfolio and across the industry. This means waste has to be transported further, which makes rail transportation increasingly attractive.

Strategic Objectives

The RR&T division will continue to seek to grow revenue by expanding its processing infrastructure where the market conditions exist and where the risks are understood and manageable. We are excited by the success of our partnership with GB Railfreight and will continue to expand our rail hub network as a means of accessing more remote landfill sites. We see significant opportunities in expanding capacity in our Biffa Polymers business and are investigating the feasibility of developing a PET processing facility in the coming year. In our MRF business, stable profit delivery is our goal. We will convert our MRFs at Edmonton, London, and Aldridge, Walsall, to enable greater processing flexibility and to meet the challenges of the recycling market. We will continue to rebalance the risk profile of contracts as and when they are renewed.

Energy

Highlights

Revenues broadly unchanged year on year as the expected reduction in landfill gas generation was largely offset by stronger electricity and ROC prices.

Underlying Operating Profit reduced by 6% from £29.9m to £28.1m mainly due to non-repeating prior year items.

Plans to build a small-scale ERF in Swansea have been submitted to the local authorities. Facility to be supported by waste supplied by the local Biffa I&C depot.

Good progress in feasibility assessment for two new large-scale ERFs in partnership with Covanta.

 Performance Summary

The Energy division delivered another year of strong operational performance while progressing plans for developments in new EfW infrastructure. Revenue was relatively flat (£87.7m, 0.6% increase on prior year) despite the natural decline in gas yields year-on-year, and was helped by improved electricity pricing. Energy generation reduced by 7% from 512GWh to 476GWh whilst average electricity prices increased by 10.3% from £38.0/MWh to £41.9/MWh. Our development efforts were principally focused on progressing our intended partnership with Covanta to jointly sponsor the development of two large-scale ERFs. We are pleased with progress to date and expect to commit to at least one of these projects in the coming year. We also plan to construct a small-scale ERF in Swansea, which will provide a cost-effective energy recovery solution for Biffa's I&C collection business there. We will construct the plant in the coming year, subject to receiving the necessary consents. We believe this small-scale solution compliments our strategy with Covanta for dealing with waste in areas where waste volumes are not sufficient or are too remote to require large infrastructure.

Market Conditions

Energy prices have improved despite continued uncertainty. For this reason, we forward-sell our generation (from which we earned revenue of £20m in the year) for the coming year to provide earnings certainty. We also benefit from renewables incentives, providing another stable revenue stream. Landfill gas will continue to decline over time as landfill waste inputs reduce and the mix of landfill inputs continues to shift to less organic material.

The growth of separate food waste collections has been limited in the last year and there continues to be an excess of AD processing capacity, which puts downward pressure on prices. Through our scale, operational expertise and collection network, we remain well positioned to benefit from a rebalancing in this market. Conversely, we continue to see a significant deficit in capacity for UK residual waste treatment infrastructure and expect this gap to remain, creating attractive regional investment opportunities for operators with the control of the supply of waste.

Strategic Objectives

The Energy division will continue to seek to maximise earnings from its existing operations by optimising gas, electrical and material yields while controlling costs. We look forward to bringing some of this experience to bear on Biffa's Leicester City integrated contract, which will transfer from the Municipal division to the Energy division from financial year 2019. In the AD market, while the sector remains challenged, we remain optimistic and will continue to look into ways to increase our operating footprint in readiness for market stabilisation. We will seek to leverage the Group's control of waste supply to invest in EfW infrastructure, and look forward to commencing construction of both large and small-scale ERFs in the coming year.

Financial Review

Group Performance

The Group has delivered another year of solid growth. Revenue grew by 8.7% to £1,076.7m (prior year £990.4m) and net revenue grew by 8.8% to £977.7m (prior year £898.8m). Underlying EBITDA increased by 8.9% to £150.0m and Underlying Operating Profit increased by 10.0% to £81.2m. Underlying Profit before Tax increased by 32.2% to £59.6m and Underlying Profit after Tax increased by 33.8% to £47.9m (statutory profit after tax up from (£10.9m) to £31.1m).

Other Items

To enable a better understanding of business performance, certain items are excluded when calculating the Group's underlying measures of performance. The items are more fully explained in Note 3 to the consolidated Financial Statements and include exceptional items, amortisation of acquisition intangibles and material impacts from changes in real discount rates on landfill provisions. These items amounted to £18.8m (at the operating profit level) in the year (prior year £61.7m).

The principal reasons for the significant change in other items in the current year are the non-recurrence of the exceptional costs associated with Biffa's IPO of £29.1m in the prior year, partly offset by a net onerous contract provision movement of £5.2m in the year (prior year £2.4m net release) and the impact of the reduction in the real discount rate on landfill provisions, which resulted in a credit of £5.7m (prior year charge of £17.9m).

The net onerous contract provision movement of £5.2m relates to our long-term contract with Leicester City and one other contract in our Municipal division.

A reconciliation from underlying profit after tax to statutory profit after tax is set out below:

Finance Charges

The Group has benefitted from both reduced indebtedness and reductions in the cost of funding when compared to the prior year. A breakdown in net finance charges is below:

Taxation

The Group's tax strategy has been approved by the Board and is available on the Group's website. The Group is committed to fully discharging its responsibilities in respect of all relevant tax legislation in a clear and transparent manner based on a collaborative relationship with all tax agencies.

The effective tax rate on underlying profits was 20% (prior year 21%). The effective tax rate is higher than the prevailing rate due to certain charges being disallowed for UK corporation tax. Payments in respect of corporation tax in the year were £1.7m. The Group's deferred tax balance of £14.5m includes balances totalling £56.5m in respect of Accelerated Capital Allowances, previously written off goodwill and losses which will continue to reduce tax payments in the years to come.

Earnings per Share

Total Earnings per Share increased to 12.4 pence (prior year 9.0 pence loss). Underlying Earnings per Share was 19.2 pence. Prior year Underlying Earnings per Share was 29.3 pence, however this figure was impacted by changes in share capital upon the Group's Admission.

Dividend

The Board has adopted a progressive dividend policy. It aims to distribute circa 35% of underlying profit after tax in an approximate one-third (interim) and two-thirds (final) split. The Directors recommend a final dividend of 4.53 pence per share, bringing the total dividend payable in respect of the year to 6.70 per share (prior year 2.40 pence per share). The year-end dividend is expected to total £11.3m and, if approved, be paid on the 27 July 2018 to those shareholders on the register as at 6 July 2018.

Retirement Benefits

The Group operates defined benefit pension schemes for certain employees. These are closed to new members and to future accrual (except for a small number of members who have protected entitlements under local authority contracts). At 30 March 2018, the net retirement benefit surplus was £51.3m, compared to a surplus of £15.4m at 24 March 2017. The Biffa Pension Scheme had an actuarial deficit of £66.7m at the time of the last valuation in March 2015, and an inflation linked annual payment of £4.0m has been agreed with the trustee of the scheme.

Capital Management, Allocation and Returns

The Group maintains a strong capital base to fund its future development while ensuring that it retains the confidence of external stakeholders.

The Group rigorously controls working capital and capital expenditure, and seeks to balance the allocation of its discretionary capital between investment in organic growth, acquisitions and shareholder returns.

Group return on operating assets (measured as underlying operating profit divided by the average of opening and closing tangible fixed assets plus net working capital) reduced marginally to 27.1% (prior year 27.6%).

Group return on capital employed (measured as statutory operating profit, excluding exceptionals, and the real discount rate changes to landfill provisions divided by the average of opening and closing shareholders' equity plus net debt, pensions and environmental provisions) also reduced marginally, from 9.9% to 9.8%.

Acquisitions

The pursuit of synergistic acquisitions is a core element of the Group's growth strategy. During the year, the Group completed seven acquisitions; the entire issued share capital of O'Brien WRS (on 5 July 2017, for a consideration of £35.2m), the entire issued share capital of Amber Engineering (on 27 October 2017, for a consideration of £3.3m) and five smaller trade and assets acquisitions for a total consideration of £3.9m.

Cash Flow

The Group has delivered another year of strong underlying free cash flow, enabling us to invest in acquisitions whilst funding a growing dividend.

A summary of the Group's cash flows is shown below:

Underlying free cash flow grew by £15.6m (54.2%) in the year, principally due to the growth in underlying EBITDA and reduced net interest costs, partly offset by increased finance lease payments.

Net cash flow improved from £(49.6)m to (£15.6)m due to the improved underlying free cash flow and the non-recurrence of IPO-related cash flows, partly offset by the Group's first dividend payments since its Listing.

Net Debt and Financing Facilities

The Group continues to benefit from modest levels of indebtedness. The reported net debt as at the year-end was £279.0m or 1.9x underlying EBITDA (prior year £246.1m, 1.8x underlying EBITDA).

As at the end of the year, the Group had a fully drawn term loan of £200m and an undrawn revolving credit facility of £123.2m. .In addition, the Group is in the final stages of increasing its loan facility by a further £53.3m, giving the Group significant committed liquidity to enable it to pursue its strategic objectives.

Reported net debt at year end breaks down as:

Reported net debt excludes £39.9m (prior year £43.8m) of EVP preference instrument liability in respect of the EVP dispute (see below). £6.3m of the EVP preference instrument liability is included in reported net debt as it will be payable irrespective of the outcome of the dispute and is therefore considered core debt.

EVP Dispute

The Group is engaged in a dispute with HMRC concerning historical Landfill Tax. Arrangements were put in place at the time of the Group's IPO to ensure the tax at risk was prepaid to HMRC and that the Group was protected against any adverse outcome from the dispute.

Following year end, the Group learned that it had been unsuccessful in the first-tier tax tribunal. Having taken advice, we have decided to appeal this verdict.

For further details see Note 33 on page 168 of the Financial Statements.

Reporting Periods

The Financial Statements for 2018 have been prepared for the 53-week period ended 30 March 2018. The prior year was a 52-week period, to 24 March 2017. The upcoming year will also be a 52-week period, up to 29 March 2019.

Whilst the current period incorporated an additional week of trading, it included nine public holidays, whereas the prior period included seven public holidays. We consider these two factors offset one another to the extent that the results for the two periods are directly comparable without the need for adjustments.

Michael Topham

Chief Financial Officer

12 June 2018

Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss

Other items includes exceptional items, the impact of real discount rate changes to landfill provisions and amortisation of acquisition intangibles.

Consolidated Statement of Other Comprehensive Income/(Loss)

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

The Financial Statements were approved by the Board of Directors and authorised for issue on 12 June 2018. They were signed on its behalf by:

Michael Topham

Director

Company number: 10336040

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

Please follow the below link to view Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1910R_1-2018-6-12.pdf