Braemar Shipping Services reports on 'challenging' year

The London-listed firm said that after a challenging year, the overall results were ahead of the revised market expectations.

Revenue stood at £139.8m, up from £159.1m, with underlying operating profit of £3.5m, down from £13.8m.

It said the underlying operating profit excluded the gain on the sale of shares in The Baltic Exchange of £1.7m, one-off business restructuring costs of £3.0m, largely in the technical division, and acquisition-related expenditure of £2.5m.

Underlying basic earnings per share stood at 8.7p, down from 34.7p, while net cash was £7.1m at 28 February, down from £9.2m.

The recommended final dividend of 5.0p per share was confirmed, giving a full year dividend of 14.0p, down from 26.0p.

“As previously announced, Braemar experienced a challenging year and all of our divisional teams worked hard to deliver business performance for the group,” said chairman David Moorhouse.

“Tough action was taken in the technical division to restructure our businesses and address the cost base in this economic climate.”

Moorhouse said that, despite that, the company had maintained its core skills and capabilities and, as a result, was well placed for the future.

“The current financial year has started in line with the board's expectations and we remain confident in our long term strategy to grow the business through both organic and acquisitive business development.”