These in line results from Falkland Islands (FKL) reveal the benefits of having a well-diversified business. A pause in exploration drilling meant a slump in trading in the Falklands, but a strong performance from the group's global art handling business more than made up for the slack.
Turnover at Momart, the art handling subsidiary, rose 12 per cent to £8.2m after a few key contracts for museum exhibitions came through. Underlying profit before tax more than doubled to £0.76m, so that Momart accounted for more than half of underlying group profits.
The Portsmouth ferry business continued to deliver steady, modest profits with turnover and profits scarcely changed year on year. The weakest link was the Falkland Islands business, where falling sales and rising costs drove underlying profits down by almost a half to £0.3m. This trend is likely to continue into the second half but over the medium term things should pick up. Exploration drilling for oil and gas is expected to resume in early 2015, or perhaps even late 2014.
Business is usually heavily weighted toward the second half, with broker WH Ireland expecting pre-tax profits of £3.3m in the full year and EPS of 19.7p, compared with £3.3m and 21.3p last year.
FALKLAND ISLANDS (FKL) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 368p | MARKET VALUE: | £45.6m | |
| TOUCH: | 366-370p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 394p | LOW: 300p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.1% | PE RATIO: | 25 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 278p* | NET CASH: | £1.43m | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 16.5 | 1.08 | 6.80 | 4.00 |
| 2013 | 17.2 | 1.24 | 7.40 | 4.00 |
| % change | +4 | +15 | +9 | |
Ex-div: 11 Dec Payment: 24 Jan *Includes intangible assets of £12.1m, or 98p a share | ||||
