The eye-watering drop in earnings per share at Aim-listed carpetmaker Victoria (VCP) would be alarming without a good dollop of context. The purveyors of the red carpet rolled out for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's 2011 wedding had previously flagged the issue: namely a special dividend of 292p a share linked to a contract for difference (CFD) agreement with the Camden Trust, whose beneficiary, Victoria chairman Geoff Wilding, was installed after a boardroom coup.
Non-executive director Alexander Anton, a member of the founding family of Victoria, said the triggering of the CFD entitled the chairman to receive 50 per cent of the value of the business, which he subsequently converted to shares. Share issuances since mean Mr Wilding now owns just under half the company. Mr Anton stressed that the EPS impact was purely an accounting effect rather than a cash hit.
Strip out this and other one-off items and operating profits more than tripled to £8.9m - a sign of how well geared into the residential property recovery the Kidderminster-based group is. Group finances were bolstered by £10m after the government's Business Growth Fund chose Victoria for its first investment in a publicly listed company.
House broker Cantor Fitzgerald is retaining its forecasts of £10m in pre-tax profit for the current financial year, giving EPS of 52.9p.
| VICTORIA (VCP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 1,045p | MARKET VALUE: | £152m | |
| TOUCH: | 1,035-1,055p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,187.5p | LOW: 149p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | 27 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 136p** | NET DEBT: | 183% | |
| Year to 28 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 71 | 1.9 | 17.4 | 9.0 |
| 2012 | 77 | 1.6 | 15.6 | 10.5 |
| 2013 | 71 | -3.3 | -39.6 | 8.0 |
| 2014 | 71 | 2.3 | 24.5 | nil |
| 2015 | 128 | -3.0 | -38.2 | nil† |
| % change | +80 | -- | - | - |
Ex-div: - Payment: - *Includes intangible assets of £15.3m, or 105p a share †Excludes special dividend of 292p paid in July 2014. | ||||
