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Tools and equipment rental firm Speedy Hire yesterday said it was expecting to post higher full-year higher earnings despite the recent collapse of client Carillion.

The firm, which operates across the construction, infrastructure and industrial markets, said it was expecting a boost to both revenues and profits for the year to 31 March, having reduced its fleet and seen its recent acquisitions perform in line with expectations.

“As a result of the group’s renewed focus on both SME customers and services revenues, and despite the recent liquidation of Carillion, fullyear revenues before disposals are expected to be approximately 6 per cent ahead of the prior year,” Speedy Hire said in a trading update.

“Adjusted profit before tax for the year is expected to be ahead of the board’s previous expectations,” the company added.

Speedy Hire, which operates more than 20 depots in Scotland, said in January that any profit impact from Carillion’s liquidation would be recorded

0 Speedy Hire has benefited from moves to reduce its fleet to cut costs

LIBERUM as an exceptional non-underlying charge in its income statement for the year ending 31 March.

It had been a supplier of equipment and services to Carillion, saying at the time that revenue from all Carillion entities were about £12m for the year to December, while outstanding debt had been £2 million. However, a proportion of that revenue and debt was related to joint ventures with third parties which were expected to continue unaffected.

Speedy Hire – which is set to release its full-year earnings on 16 May – said net debt was likely to come in at about £80 million after spending £23m on acquisitions, while average asset use for the 11 months to February was 55.4 per cent – up 4.3 per cent from a year earlier.

Despite Speedy Hire’s upbeat profit expectations, analysts at Liberum said they were maintaining their current forecasts for the firm.

“Given the broader market uncertainty, we believe it prudent

“Assuming the market environment remains unchanged, we believe that the balance of risks to our estimates lies to the upside”