AdePT Telecom signals generous divi hike as cash rolls in

Adept Telecom (LON:ADT) said underlying profits (EBITDA) in the year just finished will be up year-on-year and in line with market expectations.

The voice and data telecommunications solutions provider said EBITDA in the year to 31 March is expected to be up 14% year-on-year when the numbers are finally totted up.

Adjusted profit before tax is anticipated to be up year-on-year and in line with market expectations, but turnover, while it is expected to be up 6% on the previous year, is set to be slightly below market expectations.

House broker Northland Capital Partners was predicting adjusted EBITDA of £4.5mln and adjusted pre-tax profit of £4.2mln on turnover of £21.9mln ahead of today’s trading update.

On the plus side, the company’s debt situation is improving a lot faster than the market had been expecting on the back of consistently strong cash flow.

The reduction in net borrowings in the year of £1.4mln to £1.6mln was well ahead of expectations, paving the way for a generous increase in the final dividend to 2.5p from 1.5p the year before, making the full-year pay-out of 4.75p 58% higher than the previous year’s dividend of 3.0p.

The dividend hike is in addition to the proposed buyback of up to 2.21mln shares – around 10% of the shares in issue – announced in December, 2014.