Connaught pre-tax profit up 39%

Connaught, a leading provider of integrated property services to both the public and private sector in the UK, today announces its preliminary results for the 12 months to 31 August 2009 showing that pre-tax profits were up by 39%.

The main financial highlights were:

• Revenue of £660m (2008: £553m) up 19%
• Operating profit of £48.4m* (2008: £35.9m) up 35%
• Operating profit of £32.6m (2008: £26.9m) up 21%
• Profit before tax of £42.5m * (2008: £30.7m) up 39%
• Profit before tax of £26.7m (2008: £21.7m) up 23%
• Diluted earnings per share of 23.5p* (2008: 17.5p) up 34%
• Diluted earnings per share of 13.5p (2008: 12.2p) up 11%
• Dividend of 3.16p per share (2008: 2.68p) up 18%
• Revenue up 19% to £660m (2008: £553m) driven by strong organic growth of 17%
• Social Housing revenues up 18% to £528m (2008: £447m), entirely organic growth
• Compliance revenues up 25% to £132m (2008: £106m), with organic growth of 11%
• Adjusted operating profit * up 35% to £48.4m (2008: £35.9m)
• Social Housing operating profit *up 22% to £31.2m (2008: £25.4m)
• Compliance operating profit * up 48% to £20.5m (2008: £13.8m)
• Group adjusted operating margins * increased to 7.3% (2008: 6.5%)
• Order intake of £760m with 93% of Social Housing market forecast revenues already secured for 2010.
• Continued growth of the order book which now stands at £2.8bn (2008: £2.6bn).
• Pipeline at £4.0bn (2008: £3.6bn)

* before amortisation of acquisition intangibles and exceptional items

Mark Tincknell, Chairman, saidof the results:"I am delighted to announce another year of excellent results. Connaught has maintained a clear focus on its goal of building a sustainable business which consistently delivers shareholder value...The Group is well positioned in attractive markets which are large, defensive, fragmented and naturally consolidating. Our integrated solutions model creates real cost savings and provides us with significant competitive advantage in everything we do."

He added:"This strong positioning in attractive markets is reflected in our growing order book which now stands at £2.8 billion, providing excellent future earnings visibility. Connaught is in good shape to deliver consistent and sustained earnings growth for many years to come".