18th March 2015

Preliminary results for the twelve months to 31 December 2014

Cape plc, the international provider of critical support services to the energy and mineral resources sectors, announces its results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2014.

Financial summary


Audited 2014 2013 (restated)
Financial highlights
Continuing operations:
Revenue £698.3m £674.9m
Adjusted operating profit £52.1m £40.6m
Adjusted operating profit margin 7.5% 6.0%
Adjusted profit before tax £45.3m £35.1m
Adjusted diluted earnings per share 29.9p 23.3p
Dividend for the year (per share) 14.0p 14.0p
Adjusted net debt £101.0m £60.2m
Statutory results
Revenue £698.3m £674.9m
Operating profit £39.5m £10.4m
Profit before tax £29.8m £0.4m
Profit/(loss) per share 8.6p (5.6p)

Throughout this statement, various non-statutory measures are used and referred as 'Adjusted', these are defined and reconciled to their statutory equivalents in note 8, 'Adjusted measures'. Certain amounts do not correspond to the 2013 financial statements and reflect the adjustments detailed in note 4, 'Prior period adjustments'.

Highlights
  • Order intake increased by 22% to £765m (2013: £625m); order book at 31 December 2014 was 15% higher at £746m (2013: £648m)
  • Revenue increased by 3.5% to £698.3m (2013: £674.9m)
  • Maintenance revenues increased by 16% to £486m (2013: £419m), increasing the resilience of the business
  • Adjusted operating profit up 28% to £52.1m (2013: £40.6m)
    Improved adjusted operating profit margin, increasing from 6.0% to 7.5%
  • Adjusted diluted earnings per share up 28% to 29.9p (2013: 23.3p)
  • Operating cash conversion of 65% (2013: 151%) resulting in adjusted net debt of £101.0m (2013: £60.2m)
  • Commercial and financing structure of SOCAR-Cape joint venture in Azerbaijan agreed and prospects improving with the recent contract awards on the Shah Deniz 2 development projects
  • Good progress on strategy with continued operational improvement; the business is now pursuing the growth element of its strategy
  • £36.6m acquisition of Motherwell Bridge in Q1 2014, now part of newly formed Cape Specialist Services offering
  • Full year dividend maintained at 14.0p (2013: 14.0p) reflecting the Board's confidence in the future prospects of the Group
Commenting on the results, Joe Oatley, Chief Executive of Cape said:

"The excellent result for 2014 is a reflection of the progress we have made in strengthening the operating performance across the business, with improved margins driving robust profit growth, and we believe that our strategy of having a balanced business provides resilience against a downturn in any one sector or geography.

With continued progress on improving operational performance mitigating the volatility in some of our key markets, the Board currently anticipates that the 2015 result will be broadly in line with 2014, although we recognise there is increased uncertainty in the outcome for the second half of the year.  We remain focused on the implementation of our strategy which I am confident will deliver long term growth and continue to create shareholder value."

Analyst meeting

The Group will be presenting to a meeting of analysts at 9.30 am today. The presentation will be available on the company's website later today at: www.capeplc.com/investors/financial-results-and-presentations.aspx

Enquiries:

For more information contact:
Joe Oatley, Chief Executive, Cape plc
joe.oatley@capeplc.com
+44 (0)18 9545 9979

Michael Speakman, Chief Financial Officer, Cape plc
michael.speakman@capeplc.com
+44 (0)18 9545 9979

Rachel Amey, Director of Investor Relations, Cape plc
rachel.amey@capeplc.com
+44 (0)18 9545 9965

Bobby Morse, Ben Romney & Jason Day, Buchanan
+44 (0)20 7466 5000

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