broker report17 Jun 2019 08:51
Underlying results are in line with expectations and planned to be published on the 27th June, preventing re-suspension. The HMRC provision has been increased by £7.2m from £7.9m to £15.1m. The dividend is being cut to zero for the final in FY 2018 and onwards, creating a £7.2m cash saving in FY 2019. We leave our earnings estimates unchanged. Our underlying net debt estimate, before proceeds of any equity capital raise, is unchanged at £85m, or 3.0x Net Debt/ EBITDA. An equity offer raising a net £30m should significantly de-risk the financial position. Recovery at PeoplePlus should drive earnings growth and deleveraging. U/R.
Underlying results are in line with expectations and planned to be published
on 27th June, preventing re-suspension Management has announced that results are planned to be announced on the 27th June, pre the suspension deadline of the 30th June. Underlying headlines are expected to be in line with
expectations. This will avoid a re-suspension of shares at the end of June and the significant damage that would have done to the business. There has been mounting industry pressure to improve zerohour contracts (Read here). Staffline fully supports the findings of the Taylor Review and wants to make flexible working as attractive as full time work, but with greater flexibility.
The HMRC provision has been increased by £7.2m to £15.1m, which will be charged as an exceptional in the FY 2018 accounts. The issue relates to a limited number of food production facilities and the payment for preparation time, which is generally the time doing workwear, and relates to the years 2013 to 2018. This comprises £9.9m for remediation and £5.2m for the maximum penalty from HMRC. We expect that this is a prudent estimate and expect only a low variability on the outcome. It is possible that not all of the remediation is paid, if Staffline takes reasonable steps, but cannot locate agency workers, who may have returned to Europe. Our assumption is that all of the
provision is also paid as cash in FY 2019.
The dividend is being cut to zero for the final in FY 2018 and onwards, creating a £7.2m cash saving in FY 2019
The dividend is being cut to zero for the final in FY 2018 and onwards. This results in a £7.2m cash saving in FY2019. We had already assumed that the FY 2020 dividend would be cut.
We leave our earnings estimates unchanged
Management reiterates its guidance of EBIT for 2019 in the range of £23m to £28m, and we maintain our estimate of £25.2m. We see no need to change our interest estimate, given that our net debt estimate is unchanged (see below). We do not reduce our estimates yet to reflect the dilution (or anything else) as a result of the equity raise since we do not know the price.