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Business review
24 Cosalt plc Annual report & financial statements 2008
Financial review
Financial review
2008 was the year we exited our
last legacy business. Our focus
has turned to developing our
Offshore and Marine businesses.
Special items
The Group incurred £5.7 million of special items
in the year.
Redundancy and restructuring in Marine amounted to
£0.4 million. Recruitment and compensation costs of
£0.4 million were incurred on changes to Executive
Management, abortive acquisition cost amounted to
£0.6 million and costs in connection with re-branding and
the relocation of the Head Office were £0.7 million in the
year. The Group also incurred rebanking fees of £0.7 million
during the year. The revaluation of investment property
resulted in a reduction in value of £0.8 million. Following
the acquisitions in the previous and current year the Group
has assessed the intangible assets acquired and attributed
a value and life to these assets. These assets are required
to be amortised over their useful lives and consequently a
charge has been made in the current year. The total charge
this year is £2.1 million.
Discontinued Operations
Holiday Homes
The legacy Holiday Homes division was disposed of
on 25 October 2008 to Endless Group for a nominal
cash consideration.
As a result of the disposal, the Group incurred a total loss of
£16.8 million including post tax losses in the accounts for the
year ended 26 October 2008.
Schoolwear
The Banner schoolwear business was disposed of on
13 May for a consideration of £4.5 million.
The Group received £1.5 million cash on completion with the
balance in loan notes of which £0.5 million was received before
26 October 2008.
As a result of the sale, the Group incurred a total loss of
£8.7 million including trading losses in the accounts for the year
ended 26 October.
Interest and borrowings
The Group’s interest charge increased significantly due largely
to increased levels of debt to fund the acquisition of Myhre-
Maritime A/S and the net outflow of funds on discontinued
businesses.
The year-end borrowings (including leasing) were £26.8 million
compared to £14.3 million at the previous year end as a
consequence of these major movements.
Shareholders’ returns
The Headline earnings per share for the year were 23.38p
compared to 1.76p last year. The statutory basic earnings
per share for the year were a loss of (98.70)p compared to
earnings of 10.59 last year.
Due to the requirements of IAS 10 the dividends recognised
in equity included in the accounts represent the final dividend
from last year and the interim dividend paid during the year.
Balance sheet
The Group net assets have reduced in the year by £21.3 million
principally due to trading losses incurred in the discontinued
business and the subsequent loss on the sale.
Retirement benefits
The deficit has reduced at the year end by £2.5 million
compared to the previous year, principally due to movements
in the value of liabilities. The net deficit after allowance for
deferred taxation was £4.5 million.