A year ago Dart Group was cautious about trading prospects - and rightly so as the 2009-10 results indicate. Before unallocated items, aviation revenues were £14.4m down at £312m but profits plunged by more than half to £15.8m as margins were squeezed by a combination of reduced demand and higher dollar fuel costs. Dart makes no mention of new competition from Ryanair at Jet2's all-important base of Leeds Bradford International airport; however, it did manage to increase individual customer spending.
Yet, despite this disappointing result, the share price rose slightly on news of the figures and with good reason. For starters, over the year end-March net cash balances have jumped from £11.8m which is most encouraging even if a lot of that cash represents pre-summer flight deposits. Second, the 'second string' business, Fowler Welch-Coolchain, a supermarket food and drinks distributor, turned in a sterling performance with a near-£10m increase in sales to £122.5m to producing a profits advance from £4.1m to £7.4m. The acquisition of a competitor and new client wins also helped boost performance.
Dart hopes to grow both businesses in 2010-11. On that basis, broker Arden forecasts turnover to rise to £442m with adjusted profits (excluding £3m for the volcanic dust storm) advancing from £18.9m to £21m. Earnings rise from 9.4p to 10.7p.
| ORD PRICE: | 56.75p | MARKET VALUE: | £80.1m | |
| TOUCH: | 56.5-56.75p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 71p | LOW: 40.75p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2% | PE RATIO: | 5 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 82p | NET CASH: | £60.7m | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m)* | Earnings per share (p)* | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 311 | 14.8 | 1.69 | 1.86 |
| 2007 | 349 | -3.6 | 0.46 | 2.08 |
| 2008 | 429 | 11.8 | 6.18 | 0.65 |
| 2009 | 439 | 33.5 | 19.27 | 0.71 |
| 2010 | 435 | 22.2 | 11.06 | 1.11 |
| % change | -1 | -34 | -43 | +56 |
Ex-div: 08 September Payment: 15 October Aim: Airline & airports. * Including specific fair value movements | ||||
