Utilitywise share price up as sales rise 93 per cent
Independent cost management firm Utilitywise almost doubled its revenue in the 2014 financial year, with a 93 per cent jump from £25.3m to £48.6m.
The consultancy also saw profit before tax climb to £13.1m, up by 76 per cent on the £7.4m posted in 2013, although this excluded acquisition costs of £100,000. The company purchased and integrated Czech Republic-based Icon Communication Centres in April. As a result of this and previous acquisitions, Utilitywise restructured into two divisions, enterprise and corporate, during 2014. The dividend for 2014 was 54 per cent higher than last year’s, at 4p compared with 2.6p.
Geoff Thompson, Utilitywise chief executive, said the previous year’s growth demonstrated “the momentum we have established as a result of both organic growth and the successful integration of our recent acquisitions”.
He added: “Our continued strong performance is evidence of the strength of our proposition, the hard work of our people and most importantly the value we add to our customers. We enter the new financial year with a very healthy level of contracted revenue as well as a strong pipeline and, as a result, the board remains confident in the group’s continued success.” Shares rose by 5.3 per cent yesterday.