GVA published its annual Trading Report this week, and with it its financial results for the year ending Apr 2013. It highlights a major jump in profit, coupled with a significant reduction in net debt.
Turnover for the year delivered a sizable profit before tax of £7.8 million, £7.7 million up on the previous year as it saw the benefit of the previous year’s shareholder debt for equity swap.
GVA, which has an office in Bristol, further reduced its bank debt by £9.4 million during the year to £7 million ensuring a very strong balance sheet. The company remains on course to fulfil the pledge it set out 12 months ago of becoming a debt-free company within 12 months from now.
During a year in which it recorded a total turnover for the overall business of £147.3 million, up from £140.4 million on the previous year (5% increase), the company performed well under challenging trading conditions.
The year on year growth allowed GVA to significantly increase its bonus pool awards to £9.9 million. This reflected a desire to distribute 45% of earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation to high performing staff.
Rob Bould, Chief Executive at GVA, comments: “These results reflect a robust performance that fulfils the goals we set out to meet in April 2012. The success of our company restructure, coupled with our ability to build on that platform throughout last year, have turned GVA into a far safer and stronger proposition.
“We have gained market share, increased fee income and continued to invest in our resilient, advisory-led regional model that differentiates us from other UK commercial property advisors.”
So what of the future? Rob Bould comments: “Market sentiment has improved markedly over recent months. We don’t see trading conditions improving significantly until well into 2014, but positive sentiment built on hard evidence that better times lay ahead means now is an important period in which to invest in ones existing assets. With this in mind, GVA is entering another period of growth owed largely to last year’s robust performance. Business acquisitions are back on the agenda, and we’re already hiring a string of high level directors to not only lead the areas we believe carry the most potential as the market evolves, but also to compliment any future acquisitions.”
Cash generation continues to be a major strength of the business. GVA reported an industry leading 38 debtor days at the year end.