Marshalls shares slid 0.6% to 452.1p in early morning trading on Thursday, after the firm announced an EBITDA fall to £45.7 million in HY1 2022 compared to £56.4 million the last year.
The building materials group reported an operating profit drop to £27.3 million from £41 million.
Marshalls confirmed a pre-tax profit decline to £23.9 million against £38.9 million year-on-year, after adjusting items including acquisitions costs of £20.7 million.
Meanwhile, revenue grew to £348.4 million compared to £298.1 million due to two months of contribution from its Marley acquisition, which was completed on 29 April 2022, and a 7% like-for-like growth.
Net debt rose to £252.3 million from £52.4 million linked to the bank financing implemented to partially fund the acquisition of Marley.
The company highlighted a basic EPS slide to 7.9p from 15.3 million the year before.
Marshalls hiked its dividend 21% to 5.7p per share compared to 4.7p in HY1 2021.
“Marshalls delivered a robust first half trading performance, demonstrating the strength of our business model and the benefits of greater diversification resulting from the transformational Marley deal completed in April 2022 and other acquisitions of recent years,” said Marshalls CEO Martyn Coffey.
“Looking forward, the Board acknowledges that the macro outlook is becoming less certain due to geopolitical events driving up inflation and adversely impacting consumer confidence.”
“Notwithstanding this, the Board’s expectations for the Group as a whole remain in line with market expectations for the full year, with the more positive backdrop within Marshalls Building Products and Marley expected to balance the continuation of tougher trading conditions in Marshalls Landscape Products, which has greater exposure to the discretionary element of private housing RMI.”