(Alliance News) - HomeServe PLC on Tuesday said it had seen a hike in its full-year revenue and expected accelerated growth in the coming year.
The West Midlands-based firm posted revenue for the year ended March 31 of GBP1.30 billion, rising 15% from GBP1.13 billion the previous year. HomeServe said growth was bolstered by "exceptional performance" in North America, with revenue up 22% to USD665.8 million and a new partner pipeline at its strongest ever.
Founder & Chief Executive Richard Harpin commented: "In the last year, our homes have become more important to us than ever and demand for our services continued to grow.
"Our North American membership business was the stand out performer, growing customers to 4.7 million, increasing policy retention by 2 percentage points to 85% and now covering 66 million utility partner households."
Despite revenue growth, profit before tax fell 66% to GBP47.2 million, although this was mainly due to an exceptional charge of GBP84.8 million linked to halting the use of eServe, its customer relationship management system.
The total number of HomeServe clients rose slightly by 1% year-on-year to 8.4 million.
Looking to the future, HomeServe said the group is "well positioned for further strong growth" and is predicting to deliver an "acceleration in performance" in 2022.
"We see demand for high quality tradespeople continuing to grow, as more and more people seek to make their homes better and greener. We are well set up for continued strong growth," added Harpin.
HomeServe said it expected to increase its final dividend to 19.8 pence per share, up from 17.8p the prior year. The upswing would raise the total dividend for the year to 26.0p, up 10%.
Shares were down 5.5% to 980.50p in London. The wider FTSE 250 index was up 0.3%.
In other news, Homeserve confirmed Tommy Breen would replace Barry Gibson as chair of the company from Wednesday.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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