Last month, public relations group Huntsworth (HNT) released a trading statement indicating that these results would be ahead of consensus. Looking at the pre-tax loss sustained by the group for the year, it would be easy to dismiss this as another piece of PR spin, but adjusted pre-tax profits for the reported period came in at £16m (£13.3m in 2015), £1m higher than the top end of the expected range.
Its Grayling business continued to face challenges in both the US and Middle East, losing clients and experiencing delays in client renewals. The group has responded with a comprehensive restructuring, spending £1.6m to close its US state lobbying business and selling communications specialist Hudson Sandler to management. Goodwill impairments totalling £30.5m were taken against Grayling, ensuring the statutory group loss. Management said the division was "well placed" to return to profit this year.
Like-for-like revenues across Huntsworth Health, Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Red were up. The first and largest of those grew turnover by 14 per cent to £90.8m, driven primarily by the division's various US agencies.
Analysts at Numis are forecasting underlying profit before tax of £18.5m, giving underlying basic EPS of 3.9p in 2017 (from £16m and 3.4p in 2016).
HUNTSWORTH (HNT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 44p | MARKET VALUE: | £143m | |
| TOUCH: | 43-44p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 48p | LOW: 34p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.0% | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 46p* | NET DEBT: | 21% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 216 | 18.8 | 6.3 | 3.50 |
| 2013 | 209 | 17.1 | 5.0 | 3.50 |
| 2014 | 206 | -59.6 | -17.6 | 1.75 |
| 2015 | 209 | -39.8 | -12.3 | 1.75 |
| 2016 | 216 | -16.5 | -5.6 | 1.75 |
| % change | +3 | -59 | -54 | |
Ex-div: 25 May Payment: 6 Jul *Includes intangible assets of £160m, or 49p a share | ||||
