‘Transformative’ year for infrastructure firm topping £44m revenues
Utility infrastructure and services provider Fulcrum has reported significant revenue growth and plans for expansion in its annual results.
The Sheffield-based company achieved revenues of £44.8m for the year ending 31 March 2018, an increase of 18.8% from £37.7m the previous year, and an EBITDA of £8.7m, up 19.2%. Pre-tax profit increased from £6.5m to £7m.
The firm reported sustained growth in its order book, up 39% since March 2017 to £42.8m (2017: £30.3m), up 17% on a like-for-like basis, excluding acquisitions.
The firm said growth of the business has been delivered organically, supported by its acquisition of Dunamis and CDS Pipe Services during the year. It said that the acquisitions enabled Fulcrum to strengthen its in-house capabilities, expanding the group’s workforce by 38%, now employing 281 across the UK.
Martin Harrison, CEO of Fulcrum, said: “This has been a transformative year for Fulcrum in which we continued to deliver against our strategy and strengthen our market position. We have driven strong organic growth in our core business and have expanded our in-house capabilities and share in the electric and specialist gas connections markets following the acquisitions of Dunamis and CDS.”
The company has also announced its intention to become an accredited Meter Operator (MOP) as part of a strategy to install and adopt Smart Meters and to further strengthen its range of services and asset ownership.
In the past year the expansion of Fulcrum’s range of services to the multi-utility market included the formation of its electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure division, and announced a new partnership arrangement in May 2018 with US company, ChargePoint.
Fulcrum also continued to develop its utility infrastructure adoption and ownership strategy with its iDNO electrical asset licence becoming fully-operational and its annualised purchase of gas assets increasing to £10m.
In addition, to support further planned growth in its utility asset ownership, Fulcrum has agreed a new debt facility for up to £20m, which replaces the previous facility that was undrawn at the year end.
Fulcrum’s board has recommended a final dividend of 1.4p per share, an increase from 1.3p in 2017, resulting in a full-year dividend of 2.1p per share, up 10.5 percent on the previous year.
“We remain committed to safety, providing excellent customer service, enhancing our in-house multi-utility and infrastructure services capabilities and growing the utility asset base. The combination of the new £20.0m debt facility and our net cash of £9.4m positions us well for investing in new opportunities such as the ownership of electric utility assets, electric vehicle charging and smart metering solutions. We have a strong platform for continued profitable growth in the coming year and remain confident for the future.”
