28 September 2018 – interim results
Interim results covering the six months to 30 June 2018 have been released. Revenue fell to £12.67m versus £17.65m in the same period a year earlier. The period was exceptionally difficult and the collapse of Toys ‘R’ Us, a significant customer for Tandem Group, had an impact. A loss before taxation and after non-underlying items of £348k was recorded (2017: profit of £419k). The basic loss per share was 7.1p versus earnings per share of 7.6p in the corresponding period. However, the interim dividend was increased from 1.35p per share to 1.42p. Net assets increased from £8.4m at 30 June 2017 to £10.6m at 30 June 2018, helped by the pension schemes’ deficits falling from £4.15m to £2.80m. Net debt was down 18% to £3.5m at 30 June 2018 versus £4.3m a year earlier. Encouragingly, revenue for the 13 week period from 25 June to 23 September was approximately 10% up on last year and this leaves the company well positioned to deliver an acceptable level of profit for the year as a whole. With the shares trading at little more than half the net asset value and on a historic p/e ratio of 3.2x, a BUY rating is easily justified.