Stobart confident with half-year revenues up 13% to £65.3m

TRANSPORT logistics and infrastructure giant Stobart has seen a rise in half year revenues and profits as it said it was on track with clear targets for its three growth divisions in energy, aviation and rail.

Updating the markets this morning on its performance in the six months to August 31, the Cumbria-based group saw revenue from continuing operations up 13% to £65.3m compared to £57.6m in the prior year period, underlying EBITDA increased by 102% to £20.2m (2015: £10.0m) and profit before tax increased to £10.8m (2015: £0.6m).

The company said that, post period end, heads of terms have been signed with CityJet to operate flights to up to 18 new destinations starting in April 2017, bringing up to 600,000 new passengers through London Southend Airport.

Stobart Rail boasts a £61m order pipeline, winning a number of new contracts including BAM’s Highlands Enhancements Programme and the Alliance on the Northern Hub.

Meanwhile, Stobart Infrastructure sold 47 acres of investment property at Speke in May 2016 resulting in a profit on disposal during the period of £11.6m in addition to the £9.1m revaluation gain recognised last year

The group’s investment in Eddie Stobart continues to perform well with the business “growing strongly”, the company said.

Changes to the company’s board include the appointment of Ben Whawell as CEO of Stobart Energy as the division continues preparations to deliver in excess of 2m tonnes of biomass fuel by 2018.

Meanwhile Mark Adams has been appointed CFO and will join the group next month.

Chief executive Andrew Tinkler said: “Stobart has continued to work towards delivering its clear targets for its three growth divisions, Energy, Aviation and Rail.

“We are very pleased to be working with CityJet to add new flights at London Southend Airport. This arrangement will open up around 18 new destinations, giving our customers more choice. These additional services could bring up to 600,000 passengers per year to the airport providing us with further momentum towards achieving our target run rate of 2.5 million passengers by 2018.

“We have appointed Ben Whawell as CEO of the energy division to make sure we have the right leadership in place to achieve our target of delivering 2 million tonnes of biomass by 2018. I also look forward to working with Mark Adams as our new CFO whose broad experience will be very valuable as we grow our operating businesses.

“Stobart Rail continues to cement its position as a leading partner to Network Rail and to secure further civil engineering contracts for other major projects.

“It is extremely pleasing to see that we have achieved significant returns on investment from our property assets. The Speke transaction is an excellent example of this. The total gain since the acquisition of this investment property is £20.7m, taking into account the £9.1m revaluation gain in 2016.”

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