Aim-traded Findel (FDL) sealed a year of good progress, growing like-for-like revenue by close to 6 per cent. This, along with an improvement in operating margins from 6.8 per cent to 7.5 per cent, allowed the group to move back into the black.
The Express Gifts (EGL) division did particularly well, growing the active customer base by 200,000 to 1.8m and product sales by 9.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis. In contrast to the wider retail market, clothing and footwear ranges proved to be popular with customers, with sales there up 14.2 per cent. At group level, net debt rose by 3 per cent to £232m, but bad debt in the EGL segment fell from 7.7 per cent to 7.2 per cent as a proportion of revenue.
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct (SDI) is still Findel’s largest shareholder. In January, the group started selling Sports Direct menswear ranges via Express Gifts. Evaluation of this trial will take place within the next year.
Analysts at N+1 Singer expect pre-tax profit of £31.5m for the year ending March 2019, giving EPS of 27.7p, compared with £26.8m and 23.4p in FY2018.
| FINDEL (FDL) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 250p | MARKET VALUE: | £216m | |
| TOUCH: | 246-254p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 270p | LOW: 150p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 11 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 46p* | NET DEBT: | £232m | |
| Year to 30 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 468 | 5.6 | 4.5 | nil |
| 2015 | 407 | 0.5 | -5.6 | nil |
| 2016 | 411 | -1.7 | -1.9 | nil |
| 2017 | 457 | -59.4 | -66.9 | nil |
| 2018 | 479 | 22.1 | 22.7 | nil |
| % change | +5 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £25.2m, or 29p a share | ||||
