News blog

InterBulk Group

  • BY: Andrew Hore |
  • POSTED: 16/12/2008 |

Interbulk Group improved its margins in the year to September 2008.

The transportation tanks and services provider pushed up its operating margin before amortisation and exceptionals from 5.2% to 6%. Pre-tax profit before exceptionals improved from £1.56m to £4.61m. That excludes exceptional costs relating to exchange losses and redundancies.

The UBC bulk materials transport business was only included for part of the previous year so the underlying growth in profits was just under 50%. Revenues increased 54% to £250m – or 11% growth on a pro forma basis.

InterBulk concentrates on the containers and the management of the process. The transportation, tank cleaning and repairs are all outsourced. The business remains Europe-focused but there are opportunities to expand in Asia and the Americas.

The balance sheet is highly geared. That is because of the ownership of the containers combined with the cost of the acquisitions made over the past two years. That also means that goodwill and intangible assets make up a large proportion of the balance sheet.

Net debt was £104m at the end of September 2008. InterBulk paid back some debt but the balance sheet figure increased because of the Euro exchange rate. The debt facility with HBOOS has been renewed and there is an undrawn working capital facility of £10m.

Less than £16m of the current debt is repayable by 2013 and the rest is longer-term.

InterBulk has signed a 15 year agreement in Germany which will enable it to run a multi-customer terminal in Duisburg.

Bill Thomson is stepping down from his position as executive chairman in order to concentrate on building up the company’s operations in China. David Rolph is the new chairman.

The shares rose 0.125p to 2.25p a share, which values InterBulk at £6.82m. The net asset value of the business is £61.9m, although that includes £118m of goodwill. 

November trading was weak as some customers decided to de-stock. Demand tends to follow the growth in the economy so 2009 will be tough.

© 2024 Aim Micro. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Browse by issue
All issues
Popular tags
All tags

betbrokers, financial, gold, health, leisure, media, mobile, resources, services, technology

AIM Micro feeds

Keep up to date with articles published at AIMMicro.com. Subscribe to AIM Micro RSS Feeds