- First-half revenue up 30 per cent to £60mn
- Pre-tax profit up 254 per cent to £4.6mn
- Operating margin expands from 2.6 to 7.9 per cent
- One-off gains from lower steel and energy costs drive 24 per cent EPS upgrade
- Net cash of £10.8mn set to rise to £14.8mn by year-end
Barnsley-based Billington (BILN:385p), a leading structural steel and construction specialist, has raised guidance once again. The directors now expect full-year pre-tax profit to increase more than 70 per cent to £9.9mn, or 24 per cent higher than house broker Cavendish had been forecasting ahead of the interim results. Moreover, analysts pushed through mid-teens upgrades earlier this year, too.
Although softening steel and energy costs are behind the latest £1.9mn profit upgrade, there is an ongoing strong recovery story at play as the group wins technically more difficult work at higher margins in robust market segments (data centres, renewable energy projects, large industrial warehousing, film studios and stadiums). Furthermore, chief executive Mark Smith revealed to the IC that the group is on the cusp of securing multiple projects that will further underpin next year’s revenue forecasts. A healthy number of tender opportunities in the pipeline include a scheme in Europe with a client believed to be Google, the second phase of a large data centre project in Slough, and a major energy-from-waste (EFW) project with Hitachi.