Revenues were £46.58m (2008: £47.61m) and profit before taxation and severance costs £2.50m (2008: £2.78m) resulting in underlying earnings per share of 6.8p (2008: 7.6p). Cash was flowing with a net cash flow from trading activities of £4.83m (2008: £4.21m) resulting in year end net cash of £0.40m (2008: £2.05m net borrowings)The proposed final dividend is up 11.5% to 1.45 pence per share resulting in a total dividend of 2.25 pence (2008:2.55p) equating to a yield of 4.2% at the current share price (53.5p)
Management commented that new business success achieved in the second half has led to significant out-performance relative to expectations established earlier in the year, which has continued into 2010. The group had net cash of £0.4m at the year end, and facility headroom exceeding £5m to finance further expansion.
Stadium operates from two sites in the UK at Hartlepool and Rugby, and from one sit in China and appears to be winning on both fronts! Far East outsourcing remains a compelling strategy for a wide range of companies, and continues to offer a significantly lower cost base. However, the proposition for UK manufacturing is also improving as customers seek to shorten new product introduction timescales, reduce production lead times and minimise working capital investment. Current trading is substantially ahead of the same period last year, and the level of enquiries from both existing and target customers is encouraging. December 2010 consensus estimate was for eps of 7.43p (PER 7.2x) but there are bound to be upgrades.
