Group overview
Stobart Group is an entrepreneurial company applying its recognised logistics and customer service expertise to create:
The UK's number one supplier of waste wood biomass fuel to renewable energy plants
A major new London Airport in Southend
A leading civil engineering provider to Network Rail
A diverse portfolio of investments and infrastructure and property assets
Operational highlights
Increased volume of biomass tonnages supplied by 29% to 1.17 million tonnes
In the last quarter Stobart secured four major long-term customer contracts to deliver an additional 1 million tonnes of biomass from March 2017
Passenger numbers at London Southend Airport increased by 9% to 1.09m passengers.
Planning permission secured and construction underway for air/road freight distribution centre at Carlisle Lake District Airport
Completion of partial disposal of the Transport and Distribution business in April 2014 for £195.6m
Continued with stated strategy by realising good value from mature assets during the year, generating £27.2m cash
Financial highlights
Revenue from continuing operations up 17.6% to £116.6m (2014: £99.2m)
Underlying EBITDA £17.7m (2014: £22.6m)
Operating cash flow £5.8m (2014: £7.8m)
Net debt reduced by over 85% to £19.1m with a gearing ratio of 4.7%
Basic earnings per share from underlying continuing operations of 2.6p (2014: 0.6p)
Proposed final dividend of 4.0p per ordinary share (2014: 4.0p)
£34.8m returned to shareholders through share buyback programme
Combined with dividend payments, Stobart returned £54.6m to shareholders in the year
Chief Executive Andrew Tinkler commented:
"We have made good progress with the implementation of the final stage of Stobart Group's growth and value creation strategy. We have focused primarily on delivering value in our two high growth divisions of Energy and Aviation.
In addition, we have driven external projects in our Rail divisions whilst helping develop less mature internal infrastructure assets. Our Infrastructure division has also continued to realise value for our mature property assets."
