The UK business ended the period with 2.1m customers (HY14: 2.2m)
- Gross new customers increased to 110k (HY14: 80k)
- Retention rate stable at 82% (HY14: 81%; FY14: 82%)
- Delivering high levels of customer satisfaction
International customer numbers up 31% to 3.8m
- USA
- Customer numbers up 20% to 1.7m
- Retention rate up to 82% (HY14: 80%; FY14: 81%)
- Signed five new utility partners and extension of an existing agreement, adding 1.6m households
- Signed an agreement with AARP, one of the largest membership organisations in the USA with 22m households
- Spain
- Customer numbers up 77% to 1.0m
- Retention rate up to 79% (FY14: 75%)
- France - solid financial performance
- New Markets - gaining momentum in Italy
Strong balance sheet
- Net debt was £75.8m (FY14: £42.3m); net debt to Adjusted EBITDA remains low at 0.7x (FY14:0.4x)
- Intend to adjust capital structure to achieve leverage of 1.0-1.5x Adjusted EBITDA
Dividend per share - 3.63p
Richard Harpin, Chief Executive HomeServe plc, commented:
"I am pleased with the performance in the first half of the year. Our UK business ended the period with 2.1m customers and is on track to acquire around 0.3m gross new customers in the year. The International businesses continue to deliver strong growth in customer numbers. In the USA, we have signed six new partnerships, including one with AARP, an organisation with 22m member households. Across the Group we continue to focus on delivering consistently high levels of customer service. We remain confident in meeting our expectations for the full year. "
