Speedy Hire Share News (SDY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Speedy Hire PLC rose on Monday morning as the tools and equipment hire firm said profit for its soon-to-end financial year should beat board expectations.

Shares were trading at 52.20 pence each on Monday, up 8.1%.

As a result of a focus on small to medium enterprise customers and services revenue, and despite the recent demise of Carillion, Speedy Hire is expected adjusted pretax profit for its year ending at the end of March to beat previous expectations, with revenue also expected to be 6% up year-on-year before disposals.

The company is expected a return on capital employed of around 11%, compared to 7.7% its previous year. Speedy Hire said average asset utilisation was 55% in the 11 months to February, compared to 51% the same period the year before.

Speedy Hire is expecting net debt to be around GBP80.0 million at the end of March after spending GBP23.0 million on acquisitions, which are all doing well. Net debt at the end of its last financial year was GBP71.4 million.

Speedy Hire had said in mid-January it did not expect any material impact from Carillion's liquidation. Acquisitions in the period included Prolift Access Ltd and Platform Sales & Hire Ltd for GBP5.9 million and GBP7.1 million respectively, both in November.