Carr’s Group’s Speciality Agriculture division serves farmers in the UK, Ireland, the United States, Germany, Canada and New Zealand with feed blocks and feed supplements. The Engineering division offers remote handling equipment and fabrications to the global nuclear and oil and gas industries.
The area affected by drought in the United States is significantly less than last year. In addition, UK farm input prices are reducing while farmgate beef, lamb and milk prices remain high, encouraging farmers to invest in feed blocks to boost output. Management therefore expects feed block volumes to recover in FY24. A strong Engineering order book supports good divisional performance in H223 and FY24. Noting the short-term external challenges for the Speciality Agriculture division, we downgrade our estimates for this division, while raising our Engineering estimates, resulting in a 5% reduction in adjusted PBT at group level in both FY23 and FY24.
Industrials
Industrials
Industrials
David White
CFO
Peter Page
CEO
Tim Jones
Chairman
Forecast net cash (£m)
5
Forecast gearing ratio (%)
N/A
% | 1M | 3M | 12M |
---|---|---|---|
Actual | 14.0 | 20.4 | 10.0 |
Relative | 16.6 | 25.5 | 11.1 |
52 week high/low | 148.0p/92.0p |
During H123 feed block volumes were adversely affected by a continuation of the severe drought in parts of the United States and mild weather in the UK, as well as high farm input prices. Engineering performance was held back by unfavourable contract phasing and further delays on a long-running major defence project. Group adjusted operating profit fell by £1.7m year-on-year in H123 to £5.8m. While group revenues grew by 24% to £79.8m, this was the result of higher commodity prices. Engineering revenues rose by 4% to £22.6m
Y/E Aug | Revenue (£m) | EBITDA (£m) | PBT (£m) | EPS (fd) (p) | P/E (x) | P/CF (x) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021A | 120.3 | 14.9 | 10.4 | 9.9 | 14.8 | 9.1 |
2022A | 124.2 | 16.0 | 11.2 | 9.9 | 14.8 | 8.6 |
2023E | 148.2 | 14.5 | 10.0 | 8.5 | 17.2 | 9.5 |
2024E | 153.0 | 15.5 | 11.1 | 8.6 | 17.0 | 8.9 |
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