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11 May 2009
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| Unaudited Six months ended 31 March 2009 £m |
Unaudited Six months ended 31 March 2008 £m |
Audited Year ended 30 Sept 2008 £m |
||
| Revenue | 88.0 | 85.3 | 172.3 | |
| Operating profit(1) | 12.3 | 13.1 | 27.3 | |
| Operating margin(1) | 14.0% | 15.4% | 15.8% | |
| Adjusted profit before tax(1),(2),(3) | 12.4 | 13.1 | 27.5 | |
| Profit before tax | 9.7 | 11.5 | 21.8 | |
| Free cash flow(2) | 7.1 | 5.4 | 18.0 | |
| Pence | Pence | Pence | ||
| Adjusted earnings per share(1),(2),(3) | 7.2 | 7.6 | 16.4 | |
| Basic earnings per share(3) | 5.0 | 6.4 | 11.8 | |
| Dividends per share(3) | 2.5 | 2.5 | 7.5 | |
| (1) | Before amortisation of acquisition intangible assets | |||
| (2) | Before fair value remeasurement of put options | |||
| (3) | Alternative performance measures are defined in note 2 to the condensed set of consolidated financial statements | |||
- Revenue increased by 3% and adjusted profit before tax fell by 5%; tight management of operations and working capital ensured strong cash flow performance.
- Businesses continue to demonstrate their resilience, in the weaker trading environment, through focus on supplying essential products and services to specialised market sectors.
- Underlying revenue and operating profits decreased 11% and ca. 12% respectively, after adjusting for currency effects, acquisitions and one-off items.
- Cost reduction programmes implemented across operating businesses; total headcount and monthly salary cost have decreased by 7% and 4% respectively, since beginning of year.
- Free cash flow increased by 31% to £7.1m; net cash funds at 31 March 2009 of £5.5m and committed bank facilities available of ca. £15m until November 2010.
- Interim dividend maintained at 2.5p per share.
Commenting on the results for the period, Bruce Thompson, Diploma’s Chief Executive said:
“In the current difficult trading environment, the Group’s businesses will continue to focus on sustaining operating margins and generating strong cash flow, while maintaining market position through customer service. The resilient characteristics of the businesses, combined with tight management of operating costs and working capital, should ensure that performance continues to be optimised at current activity levels.”
NOTE TO EDITORS:
Diploma PLC is an international group of businesses supplying specialised technical products and services to the Life Sciences, Seals and Controls industries.
Diploma achieves stable growth and attractive margins from its focus on supplying specialised technical products to markets which value high levels of customer service, technical support and value adding activities. A high proportion of revenues are generated from essential products and services funded by operating, rather than capital budgets.
The Group employs ca. 1,000 employees and its principal operating businesses are located in the UK, Germany, US and Canada.
In the last five years ended 30 September 2008, the Group has grown adjusted earnings per share at an average of ca. 21% p.a. through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. The current market capitalisation is ca. £140m.
Further information on Diploma PLC can be found at www.diplomaplc.com