US serves up profits for HomeServe
HomeServe today announced that its profits and revenues have edged up for the year ending in March, with its US business performing particularly well.
The home emergency repairs company revealed that its revenues had grown to £633.2m, up eight per cent on £584.2m the year before.
Meanwhile, reported profits before tax inched up to £82.6m, also an increase of eight per cent compared with the prior year's £76.7m and total customer numbers increased by double digits, growing by 11 per cent from 6.3m to 7m.
The company's US business performed strongly, with profits increasing 89 per cent to £12.1m and customer numbers boosted by 17 per cent to 2.3m.
Read more: HomeServe fixes up £26.2m profit for 2015 half year results
In March, HomeServe announced that it would be acquiring Utility Service Partners, adding 9.4m households to its books. The deal is expected to complete in the first half of HomeServe's 2017 financial year and is predicted to significantly boost the company's bottom line in the 2018 financial year.
Richard Harpin, chief executive of HomeServe, told City A.M. that the company, which is already operating in five countries, has ambitions to expand into other countries using a joint venture model.
He said that company currently has a list of about 13 countries that they are looking for opportunities in, including Brazil, the Netherlands and Japan, adding that HomeServe "remains open minded as to which one we go into next".
In the UK, customer numbers have increased by three per cent to 2.2m, while profits have also grown by three per cent to £58m.
Across the Channel in France, the repairs firm has now reached the million customer milestone.
Looking forward to the company's 2017 financial year, Harpin said "it's going well" and had "got off to a very good start", but noted that he expected the company to make the majority of its earnings in the second half of the year, as customers typically claim the most during autumn and winter.
At time of writing, shares in the company were trading up 6.9 per cent at 461.2p.
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