12 August 2015 – interim results
In the six months to 30 June, revenue increased by 16% to £1.60bn (2014: £1.37bn) with pre-tax profit before exceptional items rising 19.1% to £33.7m from £28.3m. Earnings per share on the same basis rose by 35.4% to 19.9p (2014: 14.7p) with the figure this year benefiting from a lower tax charge and the interim dividend was raised by 5% to 7.9p (2014: 7.5p). The period saw a number of key contract wins with both new and existing clients including London Underground, B & Q and BP Khazzan (Oman) and the order book at the period end was 11% higher at £8.3bn (30 June 2014: £7.5bn).
Although these were clearly good figures, the group did highlight the fact that the effective increase in the minimum wage will have an adverse impact on the UK business and will cost between £10m and £15m in 2016, although the effect will diminish in future years as new contracts take account of this extra cost. The latter has caused some short term reductions in pre-tax profit forecasts with a fall in the share price as well – we believe that the shares are a BUY ON WEAKNESS.