Restore Plc announce an interim dividend of 1.85p (H1 2022: 2.6p) will be paid on 20 October 2023 to shareholders on the register on 22 September 2023, maintaining the approximate ratio of dividend to adjusted earnings per share.
Other financial highlights include:
Revenue was broadly unchanged at £139.6m (H1 2022: £140.3m), with adjusted EBITDA down 5% at £38.3m reflecting a robust performance in Records Management but weakness in Technology trading and non-recurring contracts in Digital
Across the Group, total storage revenue was up 11%, long term contracts and recurring income was up 3%, relocations revenue was up 7% but other service income, IT asset and paper trading was down 13%
In the Digital and Information Management division revenue was £85.1m (H1 2022: £87.1m) and adjusted operating profit was £20.9m (H1 2022: £24.6m)
In the Secure Lifecycle Services division revenue was £54.5m (H1 2022: £53.2m) and adjusted operating profit was £3.3m (H1 2022: £5.6m)
Adjusted profit before tax was lower at £15.1m (H1 2022: £20.9m) due to the net impact of different trading conditions across the Group and the impact of higher interest rates on financing costs with the resulting adjusted basic earnings per share down 32% to 8.4p (H1 2022: 12.4p)
A non-cash impairment of £32.5m has been made to the carrying value of the Datashred acquisition investment and results from an increase in the weighted average cost of capital used in the valuation of future cashflows and reduced expectations on service activity, paper volumes and recycled paper pricing. Although a large write down, this does not impact the Group's ability to pay dividends
Statutory loss before tax for the period was £25.9m (H1 2022: £14.1m profit before tax) and is reflective of the significant non-cash impairment of the Datashred investment, with a resulting statutory basic loss per share of 20.5p (H1 2022: 7.5p earnings per share). Excluding this impairment, the statutory profit before tax for the period would be £6.6m
Good cash generation, resulted in net debt reducing to £97.9m and a leverage ratio of 1.8x, well within the Group's target range and covenant levels (H1 2022: 1.7x)
