Homeserve half year profit slips

23rd Nov 2010 07:12

Emergency repair service provider Homeserve posted a 32% decline in half year pre-tax profit as it issued a confident outlook for the year.The boiler repair group said statutory pre-tax profit fell to £17.8m for the six months ended 30 September 2010 from £26.0m after including exceptional revenue of £10.2m from the previous period. Revenue for the half year increased 19% to £171m.Excluding the £0.6m of National Grid Energy Services acquisition and integration costs, operating profit increased by 12% to £23.3m. The group, which has operations in continental Europe and the US, said policies worldwide increased 14% to 10.5m while retention rates slipped to 83.9% from 84.2% before. Global customer numbers increased by 11% to 4.6m.Homeserve said it was on track to achieve 3% to 4% UK customer growth targets, and a UK retention rate of at least 82%. Meanwhile US gross policy sales rose 36% while customer numbers are now around 0.8m.Chief executive Richard Harpin commented, "Whilst recognising the global economic uncertainties, the continued growth of our International operations as well as the progress in the development of our UK customer growth initiatives gives us confidence that 2011 will be another year of strong growth for HomeServe." An interim dividend of 3.3p has been recommended, up from 2.3p a year earlier.