These half-year figures from Hull-based telecoms group KCOM (KCOM) revealed a fairly soft overall performance, but the group did make progress on a several fronts - including further deployment of fibre and an increasing uptake of fibre-based services.
The KC unit, which offers telephony and broadband services in Hull and East Yorkshire area, saw more customers taking up bundled products - this helped to push divisional cash profits up by about 1 per cent year on year to £28.1m, despite a modest fall in divisional revenues. Investment, especially in fibre, remains substantial - £13.5m was spent in the first half alone - but the company should reap longer-term benefits form this spend going forward. The KCOM division, meanwhile - which focuses on business communications - also saw revenues slip slightly, despite a number of key customer wins and a rising order backlog. It's still feeling the pinch from a lacklustre UK economy and divisional cash profits dropped 4 per cent in the period to £13.9m.
Broker Espirito Santo has tweaked its forecasts down slightly - it now expects full-year pre-tax profit of £50.1m, with EPS of 7.65p (2013: £47.7m/7.08p), rising to 7.85p in 2015.
KCOM (KCOM) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 102p | MARKET VALUE: | £527m | |
| TOUCH: | 101-102p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 106p | LOW: 67p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.5% | PE RATIO: | 14 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 16p* | NET DEBT: | 119% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 189 | 26.2 | 3.88 | 1.47 |
| 2013 | 185 | 25.8 | 3.93 | 1.63 |
| % change | -2 | -2 | +1 | +11 |
Ex-div:31 Dec Payment:03 Feb *Includes intangible assets of £104m, or 20p a share | ||||
