Homeserve surges as it hikes dividend 20%, FY profit rises

FTSE 250 home repair and improvements business Homeserve surged on Tuesday as it posted a jump in full-year pre-tax profit and hiked its dividend for the year by 20%.

In the year to the end of March, statutory pre-tax profit rose 19% to £98.3m on revenue of £785m, up from £633.2m in 2016. Basic earnings per share increased to 24p from 19.6p and the company lifted its dividend to 15.3p per share from 12.7p.

Statutory operating profit was up 20% to £104.7m while adjusted operating profit rose 22% to £118.8m, both including a £10.3m benefit from foreign exchange. Meanwhile, customer numbers grew 11% to 7.8m.

Chief executive Richard Harpin said: "It has been a very good year for HomeServe with all of our businesses performing well. In North America we had a transformational year, achieving the 3m customer milestone and signing 100 new partners. The acquisition of Utility Service Partners has accelerated our progress in this large and important market.

"The investments we have made in Checkatrade and Habitissimo are a major step forward and position HomeServe at the fore of the online revolution we are seeing in home services. We are focused on developing an online platform to connect a wider customer demographic to a broader range of expert tradespeople - 'Home Experts'."

Homeserve also announced the appointment of three new directors to the board with immediate effect. Tom Rusin has been appointed as an executive director and Katrina Cliffe and Edward Fitzmaurice have both been appointed as non-executive directors. Cliffe will also join the Audit & Risk Committee.

Rusin has been chief executive officer of HomeServe USA since July 2011, while Cliffe was most recently general manager at American Express Global Business Travel, EMEA. Fitzmaurice joined Hastings Insurance Group in 2008 as CEO and was part of the MBO team of the business in 2009.

At 0850 BST, the shares were up 14% to 799.50p.