Homeserve H1 boosted by strong rise in US customers

A strong expansion into the US market and weaker pound boosted half-year profits at maintenance company Homeserve by 4% to £22.2m.

The interim dividend was lifted to 4.1p a share from 3.8p as revenues jumped 20% to £314.3m. Basic earnings per share rose 8% to 5.4p.

Homserve said it had increased the number of partner households in the US to 49m and was making “excellent progress” towards its target of 80m.

Customer numbers in the US increased by 32% to 2.8m and the US now accounts for more than a third of HomeServe's customers, the company said.

Chief executive Richard Harpin said he was confident of achieving good growth for the full year in line with expectations.

He added that the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union on the underlying performance of the group would be limited.

“All of our businesses trade exclusively within their own borders and we are not exposed to any cross border transactional currency risk,” he said.

“The group remains subject to translation risk on the presentation of our results in sterling however this is within the ordinary course of business and we note that in the short-term a weaker sterling has had a beneficial impact on our results.”