Utilitywise (UTW) - which advises businesses on how to save money on energy bills - continues to make progress. Indeed, the group's core enterprise division, focused on smaller businesses, has seen its client base roughly double to 20,000 since its flotation on Aim in June 2012. While group like-for-like revenue jumped 62 per cent at the full-year stage, helped by a hike in the company's energy consultant headcount.
Yet the enterprise business still boasts a mere 3 per cent share of the market and management is keen to ramp up market share further, supported by acquisitions. Four acquisitions undertaken in recent years have now been spun into a corporate division - dealing with larger businesses - which generates 18 per cent of group revenue. European expansion is also under way following April's £2m acquisition of Czech call centre ICON. In the UK, meanwhile, management intends to continue scaling up the business. That's projected to deliver a near doubling of the number of energy consultants to over 700 by 2016, with increasing headcount cited by management as the "greatest driver" of growth.
Broker finnCap expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £18m for 2015, giving adjusted EPS of 18.4p (from 13.4p in 2014), rising to 25.7p in 2016.
| UTILITYWISE (UTW) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 290p | MARKET VALUE: | £216m | |
| TOUCH: | 290-296p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 370p | LOW: 183p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.4% | PE RATIO: | 23 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 49p* | NET CASH: | £9.8m | |
| Year to 31 Jul | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010† | 4.0 | -0.3 | na | nil |
| 2011† | 11.7 | 3.5 | na | nil |
| 2012 | 14.7 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 1 |
| 2013 | 25.3 | 6.2 | 7.5 | 2.6 |
| 2014 | 48.6 | 11.4 | 12.7 | 4 |
| % change | +92 | +84 | +69 | +54 |
Ex-div: 13 Nov Payment: 18 Dec *Includes intangible assets of £21.9m, or 29p a share †Prior to flotation | ||||
