Interim Results 2018

Further progress with revenue growth of 11.6% and adjusted EPS up 8.3%.

Volution Group plc (“Volution” or “the Group” or “the Company”, LSE: FAN), a leading supplier of ventilation products to the residential and commercial construction markets, today announces its unaudited interim financial results for the 6 months ended 31 January 2018.

^{The Group uses some alternative performance measures to track and assess the underlying performance of the business. These measures include adjusted operating profit, adjusted profit before tax, adjusted basic and diluted EPS and adjusted operating cash flow. For a definition of all the adjusted and non-GAAP measures, please see the glossary of terms in note 20. A reconciliation to the reported measures is set out in note 4.}

Financial highlights

• Revenue growth of 11.6% (10.3% at constant currency):
  • Organic revenue growth of 6.3% (5.1% at constant currency),
  • Inorganic revenue growth of 5.3% (5.2% at constant currency).
• Adjusted operating profit increased by 6.7% to £18.3 million (6.4% at constant currency).
• As anticipated, adjusted operating profit margin declined by 0.9 percentage points, partly as a consequence of the effect of acquired businesses with lower margins than the Group.
• Reported profit before tax of £10.1 million (H1 2017: £8.8 million), benefiting from the release of contingent consideration on the acquisition of VoltAir System which will not be paid.
• Adjusted operating cash inflow was £11.8 million (H1 2017: £16.4 million).
• Refinancing of banking facilities. The Group now has in place a £120 million multicurrency revolving credit facility together with an accordion of up to £30 million, maturing December 2021.
• Interim dividend of 1.46 pence per share, up 8.1% (H1 2017: 1.35 pence).

Strategic highlights

• The process of consolidating our existing Slough and Reading facilities in to a single new, purpose built injection moulding and fan assembly facility at Suttons Business Park in Reading, has commenced. We expect to complete the relocation by the end of the financial year.
• Further progress in our German business with the launch of our new Xenion decentralised heat recovery ventilation system, with improved air flow performance and low noise, enhancing our position as a leading supplier to both the new and refurbishment market for residential homes in Germany.
• Further extension of our public housing range of ventilation equipment for the refurbishment market in the UK is helping us gain new customers in spite of the current funding cutbacks in this sector.
• OEM (Torin-Sifan) has seen an excellent take up of its new high-efficiency Revolution 360 range of EC fans, more commonly known as EC3, with further capacity investment underway to support the growth in sales.

Post period event

• As announced today, we have acquired Simx Limited, the market leading residential ventilation products supplier in New Zealand for both new and refurbishment applications with channel access enabling us to place many of our existing Group products in this market.

Commenting on the Group’s performance, Ronnie George, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Volution has again delivered a good set of results with organic growth achieved in each of our geographic sectors. As well as the continuing organic growth in the Nordics and Central Europe, our growth in the UK was significantly stronger than the prior year.

The investment in our new UK injection moulding and fan assembly facility will be completed by the end of the financial year and will underpin our growth ambitions for the future.”

Outlook

Volution has delivered another set of good results in the first half of this financial year. We expect to make further progress with our strategy in the full year, notwithstanding our caution in some of our market sectors. We are a well diversified business across product and geography and this, coupled with the acquisition of Simx, announced today, will help underpin further growth.

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