Results round-up

Specialist services and engineering company TP Group issued its audited results for the year ended 31 December on Tuesday, reporting a 39% improvement in revenue to £29.5m.

The AIM-traded firm put that down to both the conversion of "strong" order intake to revenue, as well as added revenues from acquired companies.

Its adjusted EBITDA was ahead 142% at £2.6m, as a result of the company's operational focus on improving margins and delivery performance.

TP Group's operating loss totalled £0.5m for the year, widening from the £0.3m a year earlier.

Those losses included business transformation costs of £0.7m, the board pointed out, as well as a one-time impairment charge of £0.5m.

Closing cash stood at £21.9m, up significantly from the £9.2m reported a year ago, after £20.8m in additional funding was secured through an equity raise.

On the operational front, TP Group said its order intake was up 88% to £44.7m after it concluded negotiations on long-term defence contracts.

The closing group order book was ahead 89% to £32.1m, with the board claiming it had "good visibility" on future core business.

"These are excellent results and underline the potential of the group to work successfully within our established markets and technologies,” said chairman Andrew McCree.

"The group has made a successful start to implementing our ambitious growth plans. As we look forward, we see both organic and acquisitive growth opportunities."

Chief executive Phil Cartmell added that the group responded "strongly" to trends in its core markets, with significant major orders in key programmes, growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA and a pathway to new technical propositions, new market areas and a wider international presence.

"With all that the group has achieved in the last few years, the team and the platform we have built, and the range of opportunities laid out before us, we look forward to an exciting year ahead with confidence that we can continue to deliver on our plans," Cartmell explained.

Online value retail and education business Findel updated the market on its trading on Tuesday, following the close of its financial year on 30 March, reporting that its performance was expected to be at the upper end of market expectations.

The London-listed firm said that was driven by strong growth in customers and sales at Express Gifts, particularly during its peak trading period ahead of Christmas.

While trading in the fourth quarter was quieter, in part due to changes in marketing activity, the business reportedly benefited from stronger collections and recoveries from its credit receivables to contribute towards overall operating profit growth of around 20% for the year as a whole.

The operational turnaround of Findel Education was progressing “well”, the board reported, with its core UK brands seeing sales declines narrow to 2% in the second half after a decline of 10% in the first.

"Around half of sales are now coming through online channels, up sharply from 18% at the start of the year,” the board said in its statement.

"Net debt ended the year at £74m, down by £7m from the previous year in part due to favourable timing differences, with the outflows from the legacy customer refund programme remaining on track."

The group said it expected to announce its full year results on 6 June.