Billington Regulatory News (BILN)

Press Release 10 September 2013

Billington Holdings Plc

("Billington" or "the Group")

 Interim Results

Billington Holdings Plc (AIM:BILN), one of the UK's leading structural steel and construction safety solutions specialists, today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2013.

¹ Adjusted EBITDA is EBITDA adjusted for redundancy costs

Highlights

· Results in line with current market expectations but ahead of original market expectations at the start of the financial year

· Adjusted EBITDA¹ increased by £179,000 to £817,000 (2012: £638,000); Profit before tax of £252,000 (2012: loss of £200,000), an improvement of £452,000

· Successful delivery of first projects into strategically targeted new business sectors, including rail and energy. First overseas project, in Scandinavia, delivered

· Balance sheet strength remains, with cash and cash equivalents of £417,000; cash reduction due to increased inventory and work in progress levels

· Market remains challenging, although there are encouraging signs of stability and tentative improvement; Billington's pipeline of opportunities is increasing

Steve Fareham, Chief Executive, commented:

"I am pleased to report a set of results that exceed original market expectations from the start of this financial year and demonstrate the progress that Billington has made in recent years.

"The combination of the restructuring action that we completed in 2012, success in securing work in new sectors and early, albeit tentative, signs of market recovery have led to a return to profitability for the Group.

"Prospects for the sectors in which we operate are beginning to show slight improvement and, although we remain cautious, we look forward to exploiting the opportunities our markets present in the second half of the year and beyond."

For further information please contact:

Billington Holdings Plc Tel: 01226 340666

Peter Hems, Non-Executive Chairman

Steve Fareham, Chief Executive

Blythe Weigh Communications Tel: 020 7138 3204

Paul Weigh Mob: 07989 129658

W H Ireland Limited Tel: 0161 819 8875

Katy Mitchell

Chief Executive's Statement

Introduction

I am pleased to report results for Billington Holdings plc for the six months ended 30 June 2013 which, as reported in our trading statement dated 9 July 2013, exceed original market expectations at the start of our financial year. Trading conditions continue to marginally improve, albeit from a very low point, and our 'stability and return to profitability' initiative continues to yield further improvements in the business.

Results

I am happy to report that the trading position of the Group for the six months to June 2013 yielded a trading profit of £0.3 million after adjusting for redundancy costs of £0.1 million. The equivalent period in 2012 was a trading profit of £0.1 million after adjusting for redundancy costs incurred in the period of £0.3 million.

Group revenue decreased by 15% on the equivalent period in 2012, primarily as a result of our continuing policy of targeting added value work and not production volumes in our core Billington Structures business.

Businesses

Structural Steel

Based in Barnsley and Bristol, Billington Structures' primary activity is the design, fabrication and erection of structural steelwork for a wide variety of sectors, primarily to the UK construction industry. During the first half of 2013 we have successfully delivered projects into new markets including rail and energy. A significant fast track project was also secured and completed in Scandinavia during the spring, with the potential to further progress the Group's activities in overseas markets.

Tubecon, our specialist tubular and complex steelwork division, has undertaken a number of high profile and technically challenging projects during the period, including a roof garden structure in the heart of the City of London.

Our joint venture, BS2, with Bourne Construction has tendered a number of projects during the period and we remain optimistic that this relationship will continue to develop.

Peter Marshall Steel Stairs has proved difficult to position in the marketplace. However, with new management now in place and a greater effort on improving our offering to clients, we remain cautiously optimistic that improvements seen in the markets in which Billington Structures operates will begin to permeate into Peter Marshall in the second half of 2013.

Safety Solutions

Based in Tuxford, North Nottinghamshire, easi-edge's main business is the hire of our patented safety barriers to the UK steel and timber frame construction industries. After a slow start to 2013 and with a new team leading the business, utilisation of product has slowly increased. Additional recruitment into the sales team and the development of a system to use our products on precast concrete structures has also improved our potential target audience.

Our innovative and sustainable site hoardings division, hoard-it, with its head office in Barnsley, continues to develop and increase its customer base. It has expanded its depot facility, by utilising an area of our Bristol site, in order to better service our growing customer base in the South of England and Wales.

Earnings per Share

Earnings per share from continuing operations were 1.6 pence in the period compared with a loss per share of 1.3 pence for the corresponding period in 2012.

Dividend

The Directors have once again reluctantly decided not to pay an interim dividend at the current time (2012 - no interim dividend) in order to maintain cash reserves in what continues to be an unstable market.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The Group had a cash balance of £0.4 million at 30 June 2013, compared with £1.0 million at 31 December 2012. The net cash flow from operating activities during the period amounted to an outflow of £0.6 million, which was primarily attributable to an increase in the level of inventories and work in progress since 31 December 2012. Capital expenditure continues to remain at a relatively low level with purchases of new assets being £0.1 million in the period.

The Group continues to support its valued supply chain in this difficult trading environment and pay suppliers within agreed terms.

With a marginal return of confidence in the economy as a whole, the Board considers that having a strong balance sheet with adequate available cash resources and funding facilities enables the Group to be well placed to take advantage of the slow but inevitable economic recovery.

Pension

The Group's remaining final salary pension scheme completed its triennial valuation in 2012. No additional pension contributions were paid to the scheme over the six months to June 2013 as compared to £0.2 million in the period to June 2012. The Group remains committed to the scheme and achieving its overall objective of realising the buyout funding level.

Prospects

The first half of 2013 has seen yet more turbulence in the structural steel sector with the market leader having its own well publicised issues and a further major competitor unexpectedly exiting the market. Prospects for the sectors in which we operate are beginning to show slight improvements but nonetheless they remain fragile and challenging. 

We have increased our business development and marketing team at Group level and intend to better co-ordinate and utilise our combined resources to offer our customer base a wider range of products and service.

The mandatory introduction of CE marking, which is a key indicator of a product's compliance with EU legislation,into the structural steelwork industry from summer 2014, should help to put more stability back into the sector. Some of the more enlightened major contractors are already insisting on restricting their tender lists to CE compliant steelwork contractors, of which Billington was one of the first to achieve this high standard.

Going forward, I firmly believe that the strength of the Billington brand, the quality of our people, the depth of our balance sheet, our vision, our accreditations, our experience and our industry relationships, will all combine to yield the business further improvements in trading performance.

Board and Employees

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues on the board, together with all of our loyal employees and stakeholders for their continued support through this difficult but rewarding journey towards our ongoing goal of 'Stability and a return to Profitability'.

Steve Fareham, Chief Executive

Billington Holdings plc

Notes to the interim accounts - as at 30th June 2013

Segmental Reporting

The continuing operations of Billington Holdings plc operate only in Structural Steel. The Structural Steel segment includes the activities of Billington Structures Limited, Peter Marshall Steel Stairs Limited and easi-edge Limited. The Group activities, comprising services and assets provided to Group companies and a small element of external property rentals and management charges, are considered incidental to the activities of Billington Structures Limited and have therefore not been shown as a separate operating segment but have been subsumed with Structural Steel. All assets of the Group reside in the UK.

Basis of preparation

These consolidated interim financial statements are for the six months ended 30 June 2013. They have been prepared with regard to the requirements of IFRS. The financial information set out in these consolidated interim financial statements does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in S434 of the Companies Act 2006. They do not include all of the information required for full annual financial statements, and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements of the Group for the year ended 31 December 2012 which contained an unqualified audit report and have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. They did not contain statements under S498 of the Companies Act 2006.

These consolidated interim financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the Group for the purposes of preparation of these consolidated interim financial statements.

Dividends

In the first half of 2013 Billington Holdings Plc has not declared a final dividend in respect of 2012 to its equity shareholders (2012: nil). No interim dividend for 2013 has been declared (2012: nil).

These results were approved by the Board of Directors on 09 September 2013.