UK focused ground engineering contractor Van Elle Holdings PLC (LON: VANL) has seen its profits hampered by volatility for the full year 2019.
For the year ended 30 April 2019, and before the official publication of its results on 24 July, today’s statement offered a largely anticipated overview of a difficult year for the Company.
Van Elle noted that second half profitability was impacted by end-market volatility and project slippages. While the Board had expected to report adjusted profit before tax of £5.0 million, it deemed it necessary to,
“adjust a small number of specific balance sheet items and contract accruals.”
These adjustments will ‘adversely’ affect FY19 profit by c.£0.5 million the Company said. Year end net debt is in line with expectations as laid out on 25 April 2019.
Van Elle Statement
The Company’s statement continued,
“Whilst an update on the outlook for FY2020 will be provided at the time of the results, it should be noted that, despite the encouraging momentum at the end of last year, the Group is continuing to experience customer uncertainty in some of its markets, resulting in a quiet start to the year in some segments and increased volatility in month on month performance. As set out in April, the Group has been successful in securing positions on attractive, long term contracts. Although the Company is seeing the benefits of a number of commercial and operational initiatives recently implemented, the Board is mindful that market uncertainty and the resultant volatility may persist further into the current financial year, which would limit the rate at which progress can be made.”
Investor notes
The Company’s shares have dipped 2.47% or 0.90p to 35.60p a share 19/07/19 14:29 BST. Peel Hunt analysts downgraded their stance on Van Elle Holdings stock from ‘Add’ to ‘Hold’.
Elsewhere in development and engineering news, there have been updates from; Persimmon plc (LON: PSN), MJ Gleeson PLC (LON: GLE), Somero Enterprises Inc (LON: SOM), Bovis Homes Group plc (LON:BVS) and Telford Homes plc (LON: TEF).