MITIE boosted by move into healthcare

20th May 2013 07:08

MITIE Group, the FTSE 250 facilities, property and energy management firm, met headline profit forecasts with its full-year report on Monday, though statutory results were hit by an increase in one-off items as the company underwent a restructuring and made it first move into the healthcare market.The headline profit before tax in the year to March 31st rose 5.4% from £105.4m to £111.1m, in line with the £111.3m consensus forecast. However, after including 'other items', statutory profit before tax dropped 37.8% from £94.5m to £58.8m.Other items comprised of costs relating to the exit of mechanical and electrical engineering contracting businesses, restructuring (including redundancy costs) and acquisition costs.During the year the company tapped into the £8.0bn homecare market by purchasing Enara for £111m, which is expected to provide "an excellent platform for future growth" in the health and social-care sector. The integration is said to be going well with the business performing ahead of expectations.This £43m of maiden healthcare revenue helped boost headline sales by 8.4% during the year from £1,826.3m to £1,980.6m.MITIE said it is now well-positioned for growth and has already secured 85% of budgeted revenue in the 2013/14 year, up from 83% at the same time last year."We have had another good year with success in achieving organic growth driven by new and expanded contracts, as well as completing a strategic acquisition in healthcare," said Chief Executive Ruby McGregor-Smith."Whilst the economic environment remains challenging, we have reshaped the business to focus on long-term facilities management opportunities, as well as higher-margin healthcare provision and energy consulting, all of which will support our growth aspirations."MITIE raised its final dividend by 9.6% to 5.7p per share, bringing the full-year dividend to 10.3p, up 7.3% on the year before.