05.03.2008

Ashtead up 15% at ¾

Ashtead, the parent of Sunbelt Rentals in North America and A-Plant in the UK has reported strong results for the first nine month of its fiscal year 2007/2008.

Group revenues for the nine months were £760.7 million, almost 15 percent up on the same period last year. In sterling terms Sunbelt represented £581 million of this, an increase of almost 15 percent, while A-Plant generated £159.7 million, an increase of just over 14 percent.

In Dollar terms Sunbelt posted a sales increase of 22 percent to $1.17 billion.

Ashtead as a group saw Pre-Tax profits rise from a loss of £28.5 million to a profit of £95.9 million.
At the operating level in sterling: Sunbelt recorded operating profits of £132 million an increase of almost 30 percent. A-Plant boosted its operating profit by 54 percent to £21.9 million.

In dollar terms Sunbelts operating income was up38 percent to $266 million.

Financial utilisation at the two companies was 63 percent for Sunbelt and 61 percent for A-Plant

Capital expenditure in the first nine months increased by 28 percent to £432.8 million. Most of this was expenditure on new rental equipment and breaks down as follows:

Sunbelt spent £177.2 million on fleet expansion and £161 million on replacement equipment. It reports an average age for its fleet of 31 months, 35 months for aerial lifts and 27 months for other equipment.

A-Plant spent £31.5 million on fleet expansion and £63.1 million on replacements, bringing the average age of its fleet down to 22 months from 30 months at the same point last year.