Tribal's higher-margin technology business, which provides student management systems and web portals, increased adjusted operating profits by 7 per cent to £4.7m and saw its order book surge from £55.9m to £80.8m. In sharp contrast, the low-margin UK-based service business, which includes Ofsted inspections, reported flat adjusted operating profits of £1.6m and a 16 per cent decline in the order book to £99.7m.
Tribal is also generating plenty of cash and an operating cash outflow of £0.9m in the first half of 2011 was turned around into a £4m inflow, reducing net debt from £16m at the start of the year to £13.2m. This prompted analysts at Canaccord Genuity to slash their year-end net debt forecasts from £14.6m to £10m.
On an underlying basis, first-half pre-tax profits rose from £2.8m to £3.6m as the cost of servicing debt fell sharply; reported results also benefited from a steep fall in one-off restructuring costs which impacted last year's numbers. Canaccord upgraded its full-year adjusted pre-tax profit estimate slightly to £9.8m, giving EPS of 7.9p (from £9.5m and 7.89p in 2011).
TRIBAL (TRB) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
ORD PRICE: | 87p | MARKET VALUE: | £82m | |
TOUCH: | 86-87p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 94p | LOW: 40p |
DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.1% | PE RATIO: | 14 | |
NET ASSET VALUE: | 52p* | NET DEBT: | 27% |
Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | 57.5 | -0.71 | -0.70 | 0.40 |
2012 | 57.0 | 2.76 | 2.20 | 0.40 |
% change | -1 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 19 Sep Payment: 21 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £81m, or 86p a share |