These numbers were the first to include the Initial facilities management business that was acquired from Rentokil (RTO) in March. The £250m deal was Interserve's (IRV) biggest ever acquisition, and management tells us that Initial is bedding down well and its performance has so far been "very pleasing".
The statutory figures shown in our table were impacted by £11.7m of exceptional costs, mostly relating to the Initial deal. But after stripping that and other one-off costs out, operating profit jumped by £14m to £54m. The Initial acquisition and other, smaller bolt-ons contributed just over half of that increase. But organic growth also played a major role, with the organic growth rate reaching an impressive 15 per cent. The UK support services and construction divisions and the global equipment services businesses were the key drivers of that solid performance, which management attributes to a combination of self-help measures and improving end markets.
Looking ahead, management says the group's record future workload of £7.5bn and an expected pick up in international construction profits stand it in good stead to continue its "growth story". JPMorgan has nudged up its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast by 2 per cent to 56.7p (2013: 47.8p), rising to 63.6p in 2015.
| INTERSERVE (IRV) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 625p | MARKET VALUE: | £899m | |
| TOUCH: | 625-626p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 752p | LOW:493p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.6% | PE RATIO: | 17 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 290p* | NET DEBT: | 57% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 1.1 | 30.7 | 17.4 | 6.8 |
| 2014 | 1.4 | 28.3 | 14.7 | 7.5 |
| % change | +29 | -8 | -16 | +10 |
Ex-div: 17 Sep Payment: 23 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £502m, or 349p a share | ||||
