Construction services group Interiors Services (ISG) has had to weather recession and rampant competition in its main construction markets in recent years. But helped by a robust recovery at the UK construction unit - last year's £518,000 half-year operating loss was turned into a £668,00 profit - the group boosted underlying half-year pre-tax profit by 4 per cent to £3.8m.
It is also this division that will lead the fight back to better profit margins - the operating margin reached just 0.4 per cent in the period. Interior Services’ reputation enhanced by the building of the impressive Velodrome for the London 2012 Olympics. Eventually, it worked on every Olympic site. And that reputation will not only earn a lot of fitting out work in London - as big construction schemes are completed - but also abroad. One of the big attractions of Interior Services to large corporations is that it has businesses in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. At the end of December, its order book reached £766m - up from £704m.
Broker Numis forecasts 2013 adjusted pre-tax profit of £9m, giving adjusted EPS of 20.9p (from 17.7p in 2012) and a dividend of 9.5p.
INTERIOR SERVICES (ISG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 138p | MARKET VALUE: | £46.1m | |
| TOUCH: | 135-140p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 152p | LOW: 106p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 6.5% | PE RATIO: | 37 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 151p | NET CASH: | £25.3m | |
| Half-year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 623 | 2.26 | 5.18 | 4.41 |
| 2012 | 659 | 2.25 | 5.83 | 4.41 |
| % change | +6 | - | +13 | - |
Ex-div: 13 Mar Payment: 1 May *Includes intangible assets of £88.3m, or 264p a share Aim: support services | ||||
