An impressive first-half performance from piling and ground engineering specialist Van Elle (VANL) was slightly overshadowed by former non-executive chairman Michael Ellis’s subsequent attempt to regain a seat on the board. This was roundly rejected by shareholders, but the liquidation of Carillion was harder to ignore, and Van Elle booked a £1.6m bad debt charge representing work completed but not paid for by Carillion.
There is also £2.5m of work booked for the second half of the year for Network Rail through Carillion, and there's a possibility this may not complete as previously expected.
Trading remained solid enough overall, with sales to the housing sector up 22.7 per cent, helped by demand for its modular beam foundation system where sales grew by over 20 per cent, while infrastructure sales jumped by 37.3 per cent. Sales on the commercial and industrial sector were flat however.
A key driver of revenue growth was the continued investment in more specialist equipment, notably piling equipment designed to take on difficult piling, such as where there is restricted access.
Analysts at Peel Hunt have slightly downgraded forecasts for the year to April 2018, and now expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £11.1m and EPS of 11.2p (from £11.1m and 12.1p in 2017).
| VAN ELLE HOLDINGS (VANL) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 88.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 71m | |
| TOUCH: | 87-90p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 129p | LOW: 76p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.6% | PE RATIO: | 7 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 49p | NET DEBT: | 12% | |
| Half-year to 31 Oct | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2016 | 43.1 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 0.85 |
| 2017 | 52.6 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 1.4 |
| % change | +22 | +65 | +66 | +65 |
| Ex-div: | 08 Feb | |||
| Payment: | 07 Mar |
