Brulines' Trading Statement seems to suggest everything is on track

Brulines Plc (LON:BRU), the Aim listed UK leisure sector support company, have today released their pre-close trading statement which seems to suggest that everything is going as planned. But just to run through the report, first they highlight:

‘The Board is pleased to report that despite the well documented commercial pressures affecting some of its core market customers, the Group's underlying trading for the full year ended 31 March 2010 is expected to be broadly in line with market expectations. Trading in the Group's core beer monitoring business over the second half of the financial year, whilst challenging, has remained solid, with good progress made on the commercial development of i-draught TM, the Group's beer quality and EPOS variance monitoring product. The Group has successfully reduced losses associated with the acquisitions of Vianet and Edensure, both of which are building strong momentum.’

To elaborate a little, the core market customers they are referring to are pub operating groups with their most notable customer being Greene King (LON:GNK) who signed on last year. Also, Vianet and Edensure are very small scale in relation to their pub support business, but nevertheless it is still good to see that their plan for bringing them to profitability is progressing well.

However, it is not the above extract that is the most interesting from this trading statement. It is the next paragraph:

‘The Group has also been evaluating several opportunities to expand its footprint in the forecourt services market and on 6 April 2010 acquired Energy Level Systems Ltd, a provider of fuel management systems, tank gauging and lining solutions, liquefied petroleum gas and forecourt services. This acquisition which is earnings enhancing from the outset, is another important step in developing a market leading integrated solution for forecourt operators and underlines Brulines' intention to replicate in the forecourt market the Group's success in the leisure sector. As well as expecting organic growth from this division, the Group will continue to pursue suitable acquisitions in order to achieve this.’

To explain why this purchase looks good for Brulines Plc (LON:BRU), it is simply due to their history of picking up small cheap businesses (either in dissarray or just off the radar) and turning them around to create shareholder value.  Vianet and Edensure are good examples of this (for more on their acquisitions history, click here).

The purchase at first glance does sound a very good fit for their current petrol forecourt business Edensure. The fact that they state it should be instantly earnings enhancing does sound attractive. Just a note though, it is interesting that they have not hinted at the cost of the acquisition nor how much it will enhance the division’s earnings. Also do not expect this to add much to the companies turnover (or, if it is profitable, profits), as the forecourt division is quite small in relation to their main business.

To finish, one interesting omission from this report is that they made no mention of how the long standing potential Universe acquisition is going, which could mean nothing. Then again, it has been going on for a long time now without an update on it for quite some time, which is not promising.  Though if the takeover does not go through, it may not affect Brulines share price too much. In fact, it would not be surprising to see the price rise a little on the back of the takeover failing (as it will remove some of the uncertainty surrounding Brulines and what the takeover would mean for them).

To conclude, the management state that they are still confident on the group’s future growth prospects despite the current trading environment, and that they plan to continue the group’s progressive dividend policy. They only operate on a P/E ratio of 9, and pay a dividend yield of 4.5% currently, as well as having a strong balance sheet with little debt and a very strong management team who hold 25% of the group. As a result of these factors, they still warrant a place in the value section of ‘Grays Stocks to Watch’.

Disclosure of interest: The Author has an interest in Brulines.