(Alliance News) - Hill & Smith PLC on Thursday said it delivered a "record trading performance" in the four months to April 30 and said Alan Giddins will remain executive chair for up to another year and a half, after it failed to find a new chief executive after almost of year of interviews.
Shares in the infrastructure construction company were up 3.0% at 1.407.01 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
Hill & Smith said constant currency revenue growth is up 18%, and there has been "strong" profit growth against a relatively soft 2022 comparator.
Looking ahead, the Solihull, West Midlands-based company said it expects full-year operating profit to be modestly ahead of the top end of analyst expectations.
The current company compiled analyst consensus expectation for financial 2023 is for underlying operating profit of GBP107.0 million, with a range of GBP105.2 million to GBP110.2 million.
In March, Hill & Smith said pretax profit increased by 62% to GBP69.3 million in 2022 from GBP42.8 million in 2021. Revenue totalled GBP732.1 million, a record figure and up 17% from GBP625.2 million.
Hill & Smith said Giddins will continue as executive chair for another 12 to 18 months. He has been in the role on an interim basis since July 2022, while the company searched for a new CEO.
"The board has undertaken an extensive search process that has identified many strong candidates who have been excited by the group's prospects," Hill & Smith said. "However, the board was not able to find a candidate that met its criteria at the current time."
By Xindi Wei, Alliance News reporter
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Hill & Smith (HILS)