Photo-Me International Prelims.

Photo-Me International (LON:PHTM) describes itself as an operator of a wide range of instant service equipment. With more than 46,000 vending locations in 17 countries (primarily the UK, France and Japan), Photo-Me is the world's leading operator of photobooths, with more than 28,000 sited. The Group operates a diverse range of vending equipment, including digital printing kiosks, laundry machines, children's rides and amusement machines, in the most sought-after locations around the world. Photo-Me sells a range of photo-processing equipment including photobook makers and digital printing kiosks. The Company's shares have been fully-listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1962.

Results Disappointed.

Shares in Photo-Me International (LON:PHTM) fell by nearly 7% following the release of their Preliminary Results on Tuesday.

On a reported basis, both Revenue and earnings showed good growth rising by nearly 17% and 20% respectively.  However, at constant currency the growth was far more pedestrian at 3.3% and 4.2%.

Dividend Up But No Special.

In a more positive vein the dividend was raised by 20% to 7.03 pence, and management indicated that it would be raised by a further 20% for FY18, this will equate to around 8.44 pence or a forecast 5% yield at current share price.

However, rather disappointingly, there was no repeat of the special dividend from 2016 as the company spent nearly £41m investing in the estate, though laundry took the lions share of investment at £11m, the company was not afraid to invest across the estate.

Rebranding the Photo Booth.

Looking at the company presentation management appear to be repositioning the Photo Booth estate towards identification by partnering up with various government agencies.  The offering tends to be along the lines of secure transmission to the relevant department, which should cut down on fraudulent applications over time.

For those interested there are a number of case studies within the results presentation.

Cleaning Up In Laundry.

The laundry segment is small but growing at a fair clip, and is higher margin.  Management feel that they will be able to get to around 6000 units by FY 20 by targeting growth markets with the new 5m square revolution product in the Far Eastern markets.

Management also seemed excited about the potential for the laundrette shop, and felt that b2b sales could…

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