Half Yearly Report
EY POINTS
Financial
· Half year results in line with revised management expectations
· Revenue of £141.6m (2014: £147.4m)
· Adjusted* profit before tax, before one-off exceptional item, of £2.4m (2014: £10.7m)
· Profit before tax, before one-off exceptional item, of £1.3m (2014: £9.9m)
· Goodwill impairment of £88.4m (2014: nil) in the period - a non-cash charge - reflecting challenging industry conditions and profit decline
· Reported loss before tax, after exceptional item, of £87.1m (2014: profit of £9.9m)
· Adjusted EPS of 1.1p (2014: 4.3p) / Reported LPS, after exceptional item, of 43.6p (2014: profit of 3.9p)
· Net debt at 31 December 2015, a high point in the annual cycle, of £12.3m (2014: £12.1m)
· Interim dividend of 1.0p per share proposed (2014: 2.0p), subject to shareholder and Court approval of a capital reduction. Board commitment to full year dividend of 2.5p per share
Operations
· Plans are in place to proceed with the third party development of the new central hub in the West Midlands subject to planning permission and developer funding, that will:
o require no additional debt borrowings for DX
o provide for significant operational and financial benefits
o enable DX management to remain focused on delivering the OneDX strategy
· OneDX integration programme progressed steadily - with two further site co-locations and additional IT integration
· Continuing service improvements - with launch of 'DX Parcel Exchange' service - offers customers a market-leading 'pick up and drop off' solution
· Sales team transformation completed - now beginning to deliver material new business wins to replace managed exit of low margin contracts
* The following definition has been applied consistently throughout the announcement of interim results:
Adjusted profit before tax and adjusted earnings per share:
· exclude the £1.1m amortisation of acquired intangible assets for the six months to 31 December 2015 (£0.8m for the six months to 31 December 2014 and £1.9m for the year to 30 June 2015). The remaining amortisation relates to capitalised developed software that is being written down over 3 to 5 years.
· exclude £88.4m exceptional items reflecting impairment of goodwill (£nil for both the six months to 31 December 2014 and the year to 30 June 2015).
Petar Cvetkovic, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Half year results are in line with revised management expectations, having been substantially impacted by the specific trading pressures outlined in November. The management team continues to focus on responding to these issues.
Although market conditions remain difficult, we have completed the managed exit of a number of unattractive contracts and have seen our sales team start to secure attractive new contracts. In addition, we continue to make steady progress with our strategic OneDX programme including our plans to develop our new central hub.
Despite the current headwinds to the business, and with much to do still in the seasonally important second half, the Board anticipates that the Company will trade over the full year broadly in line with its expectations. We continue to position the Group for longer term sustainable growth and the Board remains confident in the medium term outlook for the Group."