Strip out a £10.2m exceptional tax gain received last year, and pre-tax profits at HomeServe increased a healthy 13 per cent in the first half on the back of a 14 per cent increase in policies and an 11 per cent increase in customer numbers. Despite the continuing tough consumer environment, particularly for UK public sector workers, retention rates remained high at 82.9 per cent.
The One Contact programme, where customers pay as they use services, has seen a 70 per cent sign-up rate to a full policy, while the group's emergency service number 0800 247 999 now sponsors West Bromwich Albion's football shirts.
The US continues to display strong growth after the group acquired National Grid Energy Services' customers, with numbers in the region increasing 68 per cent to 828,000. Chief executive Richard Harpin also disclosed that the group had been approached by two other utilities to buy their customer base.
On the day of this announcement, Mr Harpin sold 29 per cent of his total interest in the company or 16m shares at 415p each. Now owning 12 per cent of the issued share capital, the chief executive said he previously held all of his wealth in the company and wanted to diversify his personal portfolio.
Execution Noble forecasts adjusted pre-tax profits of £116m and EPS of 24.5p in the year to March 2011 (from £100m and 21.5p last year).
HOMESERVE (HSV) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 417p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.37bn | |
| TOUCH: | 416-417p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 502p | LOW: 303p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.4% | PE RATIO: | 20 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 70p* | NET DEBT: | 27% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 143 | 26.0 | 5.8 | 2.3 |
| 2010 | 171 | 17.8 | 4.0 | 3.3 |
| % change | +19 | -32 | -31 | +43 |
Ex-div: 4 Jan Payment: 1 Dec *Includes intangible assets of £260m, or 79p a share. | ||||
