Buildings firm surges 7pc as new boss steps in
A CHANGE of leadership breathed life into struggling SIG. It’s been a difficult few months for the building materials supplier, which plunged to a loss last year.
Hargreaves Lansdown said ‘too much time spent looking inwards and not enough focus on the end client had made for a pretty unpleasant year’ at the business. But a new chief executive and a renewed focus on sales sent shares soaring yesterday.
Interim group chief executive Mel Ewell is to revert back to being non-executive director, while Meinie Oldersma will take the helm.
Oldersma, 57, had only joined Brammer as chief executive last summer and was previously non-executive director at Bunzl. But with 30 years of experience in the industry, he has a reputation for turning around troubled businesses.
The announcement came as SIG revealed in its full year results that the firm had made a pre-tax loss of £106.3m, down from a £51.3m profit the year before. That’s despite revenue rising from £2.6bn to £2.8bn.
SIG promised to refocus on customers and sales growth and said reducing leverage was a key short-term priority. It said trading in the first two months of the year had been in line with expectations. Shares surged 7.2pc, or 7.7p, to 114.9p.
The FTSE 100 finished down 0.13pc, or 9.23 points, to 7357.85. Bank stocks suffered after the announcement that a deputy governor of the Bank of England had resigned. RBS slipped 2.5pc, or 6.1p, to 235.2p while Barclays dipped 1.6pc, or 3.6p, to 226.6p. AIM-listed tech investor Touchstone Innovations participated in a £2.9m funding round by the parent company of Resolver. The website, which was set up in 2014, helps consumers make complaints or raise issues with brands and companies including banking, flight delays and telecoms.
There are around 665,000 registered users, and it receives some 700,000 visits each month, with around 3,000 cases raised each day. About 65pc of these are resolved.
Touchstone, which invests in tech companies, put £1.1m into the business, giving it an 8.1pc stake in the private company. It said the funding would help Resolver expand its team and invest in new technologies. Touchstone shares leapt 8pc, or 27.75p, to 360.1p. Blancco Technology plunged as acquisition costs weighed on profits. The firm, which provides diagnostic and data services for businesses, reported a loss of £400,000 in the six months to December 31, down from a £200,000 profit in the same period the previous year.
Losses made on the disposal of its digital care mobile insurance business in September also had an impact on performance.
Debt had risen to £5.9m from a cash position of £1m a year ago. Blancco also announced director and chairman of the board Matthew Peacock has resigned.
Rob Woodward, who has been on the board since 2013, will take over as chairman. He is currently chief executive at STV Group.
He took the opportunity to snap up 6,035 shares in the business at 252.5p each, spending a total of £15,238. Shares plummeted 21.4pc, or 66p, to 242p. Hayward Tyler advanced as it announced client orders. The engineer makes and services motors and pumps for the energy sector. The business has won orders worth around £6.8m from Korea Hydro Nuclear Power, an electricity supplier to the South Korean energy market. Shares leapt 7.6pc, or 2.75p, to 38.75p.