Interim results
Financial highlights
From continuing operations and excluding exceptional items
· Adjusted revenue before landfill tax increased by 6% to £32.9m (2017: £30.9m1)
· Adjusted profit before taxation2 increased 36% to £4.5m (2017: £3.3m)
· Adjusted EBITDA3 increased by 43% to £8.0m (2017: £5.8m)
· Net cash flows4 increased to an inflow of £8.1m from £0.8m outflow in H1 2017
· Net debt improved to £2.7m (at 31 December 2017: £10.8m). Net debt as at 13 September is £0.4m. The rate of cash generation will slow in H2 as the capital spend to maintain landfill capacity will increase
· Basic adjusted earnings per share5 increased by 21% to 3.18 pence (2017: 2.62p)
Operational highlights
· Good progress on business optimisation programme including cost savings, coherent incentivisation of sales, operations and staff to enhance shareholder value
· Double digit growth from residues from Energy from Waste (EfW) plants despite customers having a disproportionate amount of "downtime"
· Strong growth in framework radioactive waste with revenues up around one third
· Recovery in the market position for soils with the appointment of a reinstated focused team toward the end of H1 - however volumes down by around a third in H1
· Further investment in soil wash plant to extend soil market opportunity
· Increased overall profit at all treatment sites except East Kent
· Continued further diversification in North Sea into industrial services and waste management with reduced drilling volumes has resulted in profit more than doubling
· Strong pipeline of new EfW residue contracts which are expected to enter operation in 2019