LONDON (Alliance News) - Volution Group PLC Monday expressed confidence in making "continued progress" in its second half, as it posted a swing to a pretax profit in its first half and proposed a maiden interim dividend.
Volution provides ventilation products for the residential construction market. It proposed a maiden interim dividend of 1.05 pence.
The company posted a swing to a pretax profit of GBP7.5 million in the half year to end-January, compared to a pretax loss of GBP8.1 million in the previous year, as revenue rose to GBP64.3 million from GBP58.2 million.
In the previous year the company posted exceptional costs of GBP1.4 million related to restructuring, acquisitions and its listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, as well as one-off finance costs of GBP15.0 million.
Since listing the company saw a significant reduction in its finance costs following a change in its capital structure on refinancing last June, and the write off of third-party bank financing costs in the previous period. Prior to listing, the business was under private equity ownership, and was predominantly financed by bank borrowings and senior unsecured debt, Volution said.
Stripping out exceptional costs, the company posted a rise in pretax profit to GBP12.7 million from GBP11.8 million.
Revenue growth was driven by strong growth in residential new build sales, Volution said, which is bolstering demand for its ventilation products.
"New product innovation and development is key to underpinning our organic growth and a number of new product launches are nearing completion and will further assist revenue growth in the second half of 2015. This will continue to strengthen our position as one of the leading players in the European market for ventilation products, including heat recovery systems," said Chief Executive Officer Ronnie George in a statement.
Shares in Volution are trading down 1.4% at 145.00 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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Volution Group PLS (FAN)