It's going to be a long road back to recovery for tool hire group Speedy Hire (SDY), but chief executive Russell Down - who took the reins last July - says the bulk of the restructuring is complete. That restructuring led to £59.9m in exceptional costs last year, including a £45.9m goodwill impairment charge, and largely explains the crash in reported pre-tax profits. Even on an adjusted basis, which excludes amortisation and exceptional items, pre-tax profits still plunged 77.2 per cent to just £5m, reflecting lower revenues.
However, Mr Down is staying positive. He said revenue trends improved towards the end of the financial year, and net debt and cash flow were better than expected. This was down to some serious overhaul measures, including cutting overheads, improving IT systems and tightening operational management structures. On the international side, Mr Down said the overseas business would be retained for now, having moved back into the black last year.
Numbers are under review, but analysts at Panmure Gordon don't expect much change to their forecasts for pre-tax profits of £9.1m for the year ending March 2017, giving EPS of 1.4p. That compares to £5m and 0.8p for FY2016.
| SPEEDY HIRE (SDY) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 39p | MARKET VALUE: | £204m | |
| TOUCH: | 39-39.25p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 77p | LOW: 28p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.8% | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 34p | NET DEBT: | 58% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 329 | 3.2 | 0.3 | 0.46 |
| 2013 | 340 | 11.3 | 1.4 | 0.53 |
| 2014 | 350 | 7.0 | 0.8 | 0.61 |
| 2015 | 386 | 2.1 | 0.0 | 0.70 |
| 2016 | 329 | -57.6 | -10.2 | 0.70 |
| % change | -15 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 7 Jul Payment: 12 Aug | ||||
