LONDON (Alliance News) - Stobart Group Ltd on Thursday said it swung to a pretax profit in the year to the end of February amid better profitability delivered by all its operating divisions.
The support services and logistics provider said pretax profit for the financial year to February 29 was GBP10.0 million, compared to a GBP9.4 million loss made a year earlier. The prior-year figures were skewed by an GBP18.7 million charge the group booked, which fell to GBP8.3 million in the 2016 financial year, primarily due to lower finance costs.
Stripping out the exceptional items, profit doubled to GBP18.4 million from GBP9.3 million.
Stobart said profitability improved in all its divisions in the financial year, while revenue grew to GBP126.7 million from GBP116.6 million. The group secured additional biomass contracts over the course of the year, to supply over 2.0 million tonnes a year by 2018. The Stobart Rail division also benefited from work at Carlisle Lake District Airport and from 37% growth in external work it took on.
Stobart will pay a flat final dividend of 4.0 pence per share, in addition to the 2.0p interim dividend it paid.
"This year we have delivered improved profitability in all five divisions with the foundations, management and organisational structure almost set to achieve our objectives and deliver our plan," said Chief Executive Andrew Tinkler.
"We are on track to deliver our strategy by 2018 and drive shareholder value through our three growth operating divisions of Energy, Aviation and Rail, while generating a cash surplus through the exit of our infrastructure and investment portfolios at the right time, allowing increasing returns to shareholders," he added.
Stobart shares were up 0.2% to 110.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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