Vp breaks £200m barrier as profits jump 33%

EQUIPMENT hire specialist Vp has hailed “a record breaking year” for the Harrogate company as it reports another strong set of annual results.

Revenue was up 12% in the year to March, to £205.6m, while pre-tax profits, before amortisation, jumped 33% – twice last year’s “significant” increase – to £26.8m.

Jeremy Pilkington, chairman of Vp, said: “It has been a record breaking year for the Group with significant progress made across all key metrics including profits, revenue, earnings per share and dividends.

“The economic environment in both the UK and globally is more positive than for some time and all Group business divisions are identifying significant growth and investment opportunities for the near and long term future.”

Vp provides products and services to a diverse range of end markets including rail, transmission, water, civil engineering, construction, housebuilding and oil and gas.

“The main driver for the growth this year is the continuing recovery in the construction segment,” added managing director Neil Stothard. “General construction has shown a reasonable, albeit slow, recovery.

“We have the opportunity to make further progress.

“We are still predominantly a UK business – 85% of our revenues are in the UK – and I think geographic expansion, which we have already started, is an opportunity.

“A significant amount of organic growth is available to us and we are still excited about those opportunities.”

Analysts N+1 Singer said the results were “comfortably ahead of expectations” and were upbeat about the company’s figures, highlighting its “focus on specialist activities across a breadth of industries with long term growth potential”.

It believes the momentum can continue, describing the announcement as “a confident outlook statement [that] suggests that there is more to come in FY16.”

Vp has recommended a final dividend of 11.5p per share, to bring the full-year dividend to 16.5p, an 18% increase on last year.