Results round-up

Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One said it expects to report around £47m of one-off costs for the year to the end of March 2017 after it renegotiated one of its larger film distribution arrangements as part of its wider reshaping of the film division.

The company, which still expects underlying core earnings for the year to be in line with management forecasts, said the previous arrangement has been terminated and replaced with a new distribution arrangement. Associated with the termination, it will make a one-time payment of $25m which will be included in its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2017.

In addition, Entertainment One has incurred one-off costs of around £27m related to the accelerated reshaping of the film division, including transitioning its physical distribution activities towards a digital content focused business model. This reshaping is also expected to drive improved underlying profitability and cash flow.

Chief executive officer Darren Throop said:" These changes are part of the reshaping of our film business for the future and are expected to have a positive impact on both cash flow and underlying EBITDA for the company."

Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said: "Whilst clearly negative for free cash (underlying earnings in the first half of the year were £38m with reported profit before tax of £4m) it is part of an ongoing strategy that is seeing eOne tilt more towards film.

"It had front-loaded a lot of investment in the first half of the year and reported in March that it had delivered ‘significant improvement in profitability’ in the division in the second half. It had said underlying earnings should be in line with last year on box office revenues that were 25% ahead of last year."

Non-standard lender Provident Financial said its Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn operations had made a good start to the year, trading in line with internal plans and “making excellent progress” in delivering initiatives to boost medium-term growth.

However, the company said it would take a one-off exceptional charge of about £20m in the first half of 2017 relating to redundancy, retention and training costs associated with the transition of the home credit business to a new operating model.

Provident said collections performance since February had been impacted by uncertainty within the field organisation as it moved to the new operating model.

It said this would hit net short-term trading by up to £10m for 2017 as a whole, comprising a shortfall in contribution of approximately £15m in the first half of the year followed by the anticipated benefits of cost savings in the second half of the year of £5m.

At Vanquis Bank, first quarter new account bookings of 122,000 were up 45% year on year. Customer and receivables grew 12% and 14% respectively.

In the consumer credit division (CCD), receivables ended the first quarter around 3% higher than March 2016. Customer numbers were 6% lower at 755,000, reflecting normal seasonal reduction, Provident said.

Within CCD, the transition of the home credit's operating model and work to further enhance Satsuma's digital capability were progressing in line with plan, Provident said.

The Satsuma unit was reported a rise in customer numbers to 60,000 from 55,000 and receivables up to £21m from £18m.

Moneybarn's new business volumes grew year-on-year by 20% with customer numbers up 29% to 43,000 and receivables jumping 33% to £322m.