Used car sales drive profit growth at Marshall Motor

Strong like-for-like sales fed straight down to the bottom line at Marshall Motor Holdings during the first half of the year.

The company said pre-tax profits rose 54% to £18.6m in the year to 30 June, as revenues exceeded £1.18bn dollars, a 43% variation on the £826.4m it posted in the comparable period of 2016.

Marshall said new car unit sales were up 28% on the same time last year, while those for used cars advanced 40%.

In like-for-like terms, unit sales were down by -3.8% and up by 5.8%, respectively.

Basic earnings per share were 18.6p, a 7p increase.

Marshall Motor chief executive, Daksh Gupta said, "In the two years since listing, the group has successfully completed a number of retail acquisitions transforming its scale, geographic footprint and franchise portfolio as well as significantly growing its profitability."

Indeed, during the reporting period Marshall largely completed the integration of Ridgeway.

Nevertheless, management had a cautious outlook.

"The Board is cognisant of the economic and political uncertainty following the UK referendum on EU membership and industry forecasts for continuing declines in the UK new car market. The Board therefore remains cautious," the company said in a statement.

Net debt was £35.1m as of 30 June, an increase of less than £3m, but cash and equivalents saw a significant downturn from the £28.4m it reported in 2016 to just £8.32m.

On the back of its latest results the firm upped its interim dividend by 19.4% to 2.15p.

As of 1120 BST, shares were higher by 7.04% to 152.00p.