LONDON (Alliance News) - AssetCo PLC said Friday pretax profit more than halved for its full-year after the company was hit by reduced consultancy income, one-off construction costs and charges over a "professional negligence" investigation.
The fire and emergency services provider said revenue for the full-year to September 30, 2013 rose to GBP17.6 million from GBP15.9 million in 2012, while pretax profit declined to GBP1.3 million from GBP2.9 million in the comparable period.
The firm, which operates in the Middle East, said operating profit fell to GBP1.7 million from GBP3.4 million last year due to the absence of GBP0.8 million of one-off consultancy income; one-off costs of approximately GBP0.6 million relating to the completion of the construction portion of the Abu Dhabi contract; GBP0.4 million in relation to the "independent investigation of the audit of past financial statements and the preparation of claims associated with the audit of financial statements prior to September 2011."
AssetCo said it anticipates that it will complete final particulars of a professional negligence claim, currently estimated to be in the region of GBP40 million to GBP50 million, against the former auditors during the course of the year.
Looking ahead, Chairman Tudor Davies is confident as trading remains in line with management expectations. Also, "The major contract with the Abu Dhabi Government has continued under similar terms since it expired in April 2013; and now that the specifications and scope for future periods have been documented we expect to sign the final form of a new contract in the near future," he said. Once finalised, the contract would run until November 2016, said Davies.
Shares in AssetCo were trading 2.7% lower Friday morning at 270.00 pence per share.
By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance
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Assetco (ASTO)