Fever-Tree fizzes despite some early profit-taking
THE FTSE 100 narrowly missed out on a fourth day of record highs, closing down 51.47 points at 7,378.34, or 0.69pc. But posh tonic water maker
Fever-Tree helped cheer the markets as investors piled in following another year of stellar growth.
The upmarket mixer brand posted a 73pc jump in revenue to £102.2m, up from £59.3m as it cashed in on popular flavours such as elderflower tonic.
Profit soared 104pc to £34.3m, in a year it expanded its deal with British Airways, and began supplying Naturally Light Tonic Water cans to EasyJet.
Shares in the firm have risen about eight-and-a-half times since listing in 2014.
They fell in early trading but closed up 2.5pc, or 37p, to 1499p.
The company also announced that deputy chairman Charles Rolls, 59, who founded the company with Tim Warrillow in 2005, would step into a non-executive role. Warrillow, 42, said: ‘It’s something that Charles and I and our chairman have spoken about over the last few months. We made a decision recently.
‘As the business and senior management have grown, Charles has been increasingly focused on strategy and become less involved on the day to day.’
Fever-Tree announced a final dividend of 4.71p per share, bringing the total for the year to 6.25p per share, up from 3.08p last year.
Also helping investors cheer was five-a-side football pitch operator
Goals Soccer Centres , which turned a £6.2m loss in 2015 into a £3.7m profit.
The company put in place a strict turnaround plan after the dire 2015 results – its first loss since floating 13 years ago. Inter Milan boss Michael Bolingbroke was brought in as a non-executive director while veteran leisure figure Mark Jones took over as chief executive. Shares yesterday rose 14.7pc, or 14p, to 109p.
Other top risers yesterday included respiratory medicines maker Vectura Group. It climbed 3.6pc, or 5.6p, to 163p after posting sales growth of 76pc to £126.5m. Bosses said their merger with Skyepharma in June last year had helped the company, even if charges and other items related to the merger led to an annual pre-tax loss of £40.1m.
Shares at fellow medical company OptiBiotix Health also climbed 5.7pc, or 4.5p, to 83.5p, after it confirmed plans to list on AIM its skincare subsidiary SkinBio Therapeutics. The division works on improving skin smoothness, healing and beating disease.
It was a mixed day for commodities players. Hochschild Mining was one of the big risers, up 2.3pc or 6.1p to 275p following strong results announced earlier this month. Tullow Oil also rose 3.1pc, or 6.2p, to 203.7p, as it rebounded from announcing a surprise rights issue at the end of last week. But giants fell with Glencore (down 4.2pc or 14.6p at 330.1p), BHP Billiton (down 4pc or 53p to 1283.5p),
Rio Tinto (down 4.1pc or 143p at 3327p) and Antofagasta (2.3pc or 20p down to 829.5p) down along with a dip in the copper price. Copper-focused Kaz Minerals was among the biggest fallers, down 5.4pc, or 28.2p, to 491.8p.
Shares at Egypt-focused gold producer Centamin dipped 0.2pc, or 0.3p, to 176.4p, as shareholders voted 64.29pc against the appointment of former chief operating officer Trevor Schultz to the board and the remuneration committee.
Their vote was overruled, however, and Schultz has been reappointed as a non- executive director – but not to the pay committee. Nearly one- quarter (23.47pc) of shareholders also voted against the remuneration report.