Homeserve revenue jumps on strong North American performance
Home repair firm Homeserve said that its revenue climbed 15 per cent last year, largely due to an exceptional performance in its North American division.
The FTSE 250 firm said that revenue jumped to £1.3bn, up from £1.13bn the prior year.
In its American business, which now has 4.7m customers, revenue jumped over a fifth to $665.8m, the company said.
Despite the increase in revenue, however, statutory profit before tax at Homeserve fell 66 per cent to £47.2m.
But the firm said that this was largely due to the decision to write off one of its UK management systems, which cost £84.8m.
For the full year, the firm proposed a final dividend of 19.8p, taking the total payout to 26.0p, up 10 per cent year-on-year.
Nevertheless, Jefferies analysts rated the stock as “underperformed”, saying that average earning per share had not changed despite £77m in investment last year.
Chief executive Richard Harpin said: “In the last year, our homes have become more important to us than ever and demand for our services continued to grow.
“Our North American Membership business was the stand out performer, growing customers to 4.7m, increasing policy retention by 2 percentage points to 85 per cent and now covering 66m utility partner households. In Home Experts, we are making excellent progress in matching consumers with trades, online and on demand, with our Directory Extra model.
“We see demand for high quality tradespeople continuing to grow, as more and more people seek to make their homes better and greener. We are well set up for continued strong growth.”