Cape pushes ahead in challenging market
CAPE, the industrial services group with a number of operations in Yorkshire, said today that half year trading was in line with expectations despite challenging market conditions.
In the six months to the end of June 30 pre-tax profits from continuing operations more than halved to £4.2m from £9.7m on revenues of £371.1m, up from £359.7m.
After stripping out exceptional charges of £15m, which mainly related to changes in the Australian business, the group reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of £21.7m, up from £11.8m last time.
Chief executive Joe Oatley said: “Cape has delivered a solid first half performance for the group as a whole, with stable revenue and a recovery in margin in line with our expectations, despite some challenging end markets.
“As expected, 2013 has been, and will continue to be a year of consolidation. Our priorities for the remainder of 2013 have not changed. We remain focused on driving operational excellence throughout the group to ensure that we are optimising the performance of our existing business whilst providing the platform for future growth. We remain on track to deliver continued good regional performance outwith the Asia Pacific region which is expected to remain loss making for the full year; nevertheless the overall group performance for the full year is anticipated to be broadly in line with expectations.”
Chairman Tim Eggar added: “These results demonstrate the first steps of delivering on our goal to ensure we have the organisational structure and operational processes in place to address near-term challenges and deliver future growth. The Cape brand continues to resonate with our clients as the leading provider of their critical support services. We anticipate continued growth in the demand for our services in the long-term. Whilst recognising that 2013 will be a year of consolidation to build the platform for sustainable growth, the board is confident that these steps will ensure the group is well positioned to deliver long-term value to shareholders.”
