Telecom Plus PLC shares jumped up on Tuesday after the company said profit increased by 81% amid a substantial boost in revenue, accompanied by ‘record organic growth’ in customers and a higher dividend.
Telecom Plus is a London-headquartered multi-utility provider, offering services in energy, broadband and mobile. Its stock was up 10% at 1,666.00 pence per share on Tuesday in London.
The company said pretax profit was £85.5 million for the year ended March 31, up 81% from £47.2 million for the previous year. Revenue skyrocketed to £2.48 billion from £967.4 million over the same periods.
Earnings per share increased by 92% to 86.6p from 45.1p. Meanwhile Telecom Plus declared a final dividend of 46p per share, up from 30p the year before. This brought the total full-year dividend to 80p per share, up from 57p.
Telecom Plus also reported ‘record organic growth’ in operations, with total customers increasing by 22% to 886,579 people from 728,680 the prior year. Services supplied increased by 24% to 2.8 million from 2.3 million.
The company said it now will consider potentially returning surplus capital via share buybacks. However it cautioned that amounts would depend on the capital available after funding organic growth, ‘modestly’ increasing dividends and maintaining an appropriate gearing level.
Telecom Plus said the lowered Ofgem Price Cap, set at £2,074 per year from Saturday, ‘creates a modest headwind’ this year by lowering the average revenue per customer and ‘reducing the feeling of urgency amongst people to switch their supplier’. The company, however, added that its ‘unique multiservice proposition’ will allow it to remain competitive in a ‘more stable’ environment.
Telecom Plus said it expects ‘comfortable’ annual customer growth in a double-digit percentage, and a broadly similar increase in pretax profit. Having opened its first specialist customer service hub in Burnley, England, it intends to open a second in Selkirk, Scotland, to make sure customers ‘are fully supported against the wider backdrop of increasing affordability challenges.’ Finally, it said the establishment of an in-house broker and insurer leaves it well-positioned to scale its insurance business.
‘This has been an outstanding year for the company: the fundamental strengths of our business model have reasserted themselves and delivered a strong outcome for all our stakeholders - particularly for our customers who benefitted from the lowest energy prices in the country throughout the year, saving over £30 million on their bills,’ commented co-Chief Executive Officers Andrew Lindsay and Stuart Burnett.
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