TClarke reaffirms strong second half 2021 trading as order book reaches record high
27/1/22: TClarke plc the Building Services Group, today announces a year end trading update for the full year ended 31 December 2021.
Financial Results
The Board is pleased to report that trading in the second half of the year has been excellent and that the Group’s financial performance for the full year is in line with its expectations.
The Group anticipates reporting turnover for FY2021 of c.£328m and underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of c.£8.8m. This represents an increase of 47% over the prior period. There are no non-underlying items in FY2021. FY2021 profit before tax is expected to be c.£7.8m (FY2020: £1.2m).
The Board is delighted with the Group’s performance and thanks all our teams across the UK for their hard work and dedication.
New Order Book Record
TClarke occupies a premier position in the marketplace, particularly in London.
The Group has invested heavily in resources and capacity ensuring that the Group’s growth ambitions are fully supported, and our clients’ projects continue to be delivered on time.
Our order book has now increased to a record level of £534m (2020: £456m) with projects relating to the technology sector accounting for approximately 25% (2020 10%). Importantly the Group has already secured projects worth £379m for 2022 with many more opportunities across all market sectors.
Cash Performance
Net cash at the year-end was £5.3m (2020: £10.2m) in line with our expectations. The reduction is mainly due to the Group internally funding the working capital required to support the expansion of the business and change of VAT regime. In addition to its net cash the Group has £25m of bank facilities available to it.
Outlook
Looking to the future, TClarke is focused on delivering our growth strategy. The Group is expecting turnover to exceed £400m in 2022 before achieving £500m by the end of 2023. The size of the existing order book and the number of opportunities ahead of the Group supports our expectation that we will achieve our targets.
Our growth strategy is focused on maintaining and developing our core markets whilst significantly expanding our data centre business. We are also undertaking more large projects outside of London such as those being delivered for a major financial institution by our Manchester business, expanding our healthcare offering (for example we have won a place on the NHS Smart Building framework) and expanding our energy efficient smart building solutions.
Commenting, Mark Lawrence, TClarke CEO said:
’’TClarke has had a tremendous second half of the year delivering a record level of turnover for that period and ending the year with an order book exceeding £530m; another record.
During the year, the Group has broadened its offering whilst strengthening our resources so that clients can be assured in our ability to deliver their projects. We are on track to achieve our growth ambitions and I am extremely excited and confident for the outlook for TClarke.’’
The Group will be announcing its FY2021 preliminary results on 9 March 2022.
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Date:27 January 2022
For further information contact:
TClarke plc
Mark Lawrence
Group Chief Executive Trevor Mitchell Finance Director
Tel: 020 7997 7400
Cenkos Securities plc (Corporate Broker)
Ben Jeynes (Corporate Finance)
Alex Pollen (Sales) Tel: 020 7397 8900
RMS Partners Simon Courtenay Tel: 020 3735 6551