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Laura Ashley – A Great British Brand Name Is Not enough
Ashley (Laura) ALY Blames demanding trading conditions for having to warn that full year net profit before tax will fall below market expectations. Like for like retail sales in the 6 months to the end of December fell by 3.5% and profit before tax fell from £11m. to £7.8m. As a sign of the times online trading held steady. Whilst management tries to take comfort from some positives which it claims to see, it can no longer live off the fact that it was once a great British brand name. The world has moved on since then. The question is whether the Board can do the same.
Avation AVAP enjoyed a 51% rise in profit before tax for the half year to the end of December, after a rise of 43% in lease revenue. Profit after tax was even better with a 65% rise and earnings per share were up by 46%. At the year end the fleet consisted of 40 aircraft with an average age of 2.8 years compared to 5.2 years at the end of 2015 reflecting the acquisition of new aircraft. The remaining lease time had risen to 7.8 years compared to 2015’s 5.7 years. More new aircraft will be added to the fleet in 2017. The share price has risen by 50% since the end of August and now stands at 199p.
Huntsworth HNT expects results for the year to the end of December will be ahead of management consensus, following good 4th quarter trading, strong growth at Huntsworth Health and continuing favourable exchange rates.
Drax Group DRX is cutting its full year dividend by some 50% from 5.7p to 2.5p after a fall of 54% in underlying earnings per share for the year to 31st December. EBITDA declined by 17%. Drax has now achieved 65% renewable energy power generation, which it claims is a good performance in a challenging commodity environment.
Trifast TRI After a strong 3rd quarter performance, the return of growth to its business in Asia and foreign exchange tailwinds, the Board now expects that full year results will be ahead of expectations. The Board also feels that the company is strong enough to meet head on, any impact from Brexit and global political and macro economic factors. So there is a rare statement of strength and determination from one UK company which appears, unlike many, to have no intention of failing to cope with challenging circumstances.
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Balfour Beatty Rebuilding Itself To Last
Balfour Beatty BBY is reinstating dividends with an interim payment of 0.9p for the half year to the 1st July. Despite underlying revenue being down 6% on a year ago, last years first half loss of £130m has been transformed into an underlying profit before tax of £7m, the second successive half of underlying profitability. The order book is up by 7% if you ignore exchange rate movements which in underlying real life, one can not do. The transformation of the company claims the Group CEO, come from the benefits of its badly named “Build To Last” programme, which casts serious doubt on the quality of what it was building previously.
Lookers LOOK claims an excellent set of results for the half year to 30th June and a record performance from the motor division. Revenue rose by 33% and profit before tax and earnings per share were both up by 17%. Net debt at £74m has been more than halved. The interim dividend is to be raised accordingly with a payment of 1.28p per share, a rise of 20%.
Laura Ashley ALY Like for like retail sales for the 74 weeks to 30th June rose by 4.1% and online sales did even better with a rise of 15.7%. Profit before tax and exceptionals was virtually the same as for the previous 53 week period. A final dividend of 0.5p per share is to be paid, making a total of 2.5p for the 74 weeks.
Admiral Group ADM produced strong first half growth in both customers and turnover, with rises of 15% and 19% taking both to record levels. Group profit before tax failed to match those heady figures, with a meagre rise of 4% as did earnings per share which were up by only 2%. However it was decided to keep the record breaking going and the interim dividend is to be increased by 23% to a record 62.3p per share.
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