A solid financial result further fuels Spotless’ acquisition ambitions

With a very solid set of financial figures and strong debt facilities in place, Spotless Group is well placed to explore further growth opportunities and options.
Bruce Dixon
Bruce Dixon

With a very solid set of financial figures and strong debt facilities in place, Spotless Group is well placed to explore further growth opportunities and options. The company has today reported pro forma sales revenue of $2,823.1 million, up 12.3% on the previous corresponding period (FY14: $2,513.1 million) and statutory sales revenue of $2,872.9 million, up 9.6% for the 12 months ended 30 June 2015.

Pro-forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $316.4 million represented an increase of 25.5% (FY14: $252.2 million) or 70.2% on a statutory basis.

‘Strong EBITDA growth during the year reflects the continued impact of cost savings and the sustainability of the company’s efficiency programs over the past three years. Pro-forma net profit after tax (NPAT) was $142.8 million, up 34% on last year.

‘On a statutory basis, NPAT was up 511.5%, cycling one-off restructuring and IPO costs in FY14,’ noted directors.

Spotless chairman, Margaret Jackson, said the full year result was a credit to the entire Spotless team (which is now 39,000 strong) and its consistent focus on customers, service and growth.

“Spotless continues to demonstrate its ability to grow revenues and capitalise on an impressive pipeline of tender opportunities in the market. During the year, we were successful in securing a number of major facilities management and multi-service contracts, adding to our stable long-term client base.

“Our unrelenting focus on costs, efficiencies and financial performance is delivering consistent and growing returns for shareholders and provides us with the flexibility to self-fund growth.

“Consistent with our growth strategy, we continued to pursue bolt-on acquisition opportunities in the second half to further expand our service offering, consolidate our leadership position and further enhance our ability to self-deliver services. This remains a key differentiator for Spotless in the market, together with great relationship management skills, an excellent safety track record and strong risk management processes.

“Directors have declared a final dividend of 5.5 cents per share, underscoring the Board’s confidence in the company’s forward pipeline and the team’s ability to execute on our growth strategy,” stated Jackson.

Spotless chief executive officer and managing director, Bruce Dixon, said: “We continue to build on our strong base which has been reset over the past three years by looking for opportunities to deliver efficient, reliable, high quality services to our clients. Margins remain in line with our global peers and we see further upside as we improve processes and look for efficiencies in the new businesses currently being integrated into Spotless.

“Spotless remains uniquely placed to take advantage of consolidation opportunities in the services sector where we believe we can create value for our clients and deliver returns to our shareholders. This will continue to be a focus for the team in 2016.”

During the year, Spotless was awarded a number of renewed and new contracts with annualised revenues of $1,300 million per annum.

Spotless said it ‘continues to evaluate a growing number of opportunities to acquire quality businesses with the objective of enhancing our client value proposition and reinforcing our position as Australia’s leading integrated facility services provider.

‘Spotless maintains its strong financial position with net debt of $563.5 million at 30 June 2015, representing net debt to EBITDA of 1.8 times. During the first half, Spotless also took the opportunity to secure additional debt facilities of $200 million.

‘These new facilities have significantly extended the Company’s debt maturity profile. With total undrawn facilities of $275 million at 30 June 2015, Spotless is well positioned to explore further growth opportunities. Outlook Subject to economic conditions, we expect the FY16 results to materially exceed the FY15 results.’

www.spotless.com

Incoming Spotless CEO is Martin Sheppard

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