Biffa's parent company, Severn Trent, published yesterday its 2003 Interim Results for the six months leading up to September 30. Overall, Severn Trent's turnover for this period was 1,000 million, an increase of 11% on the same period the year before and its PBIT was up 14.6% to 223.8 million.
Robert Walker, Group Chief Executive, Severn Trent, said: “Biffa's underlying performance was good with profits 7.3% ahead half-year-on-half-year.” He added that he believes Biffa UK has competitive advantages in its market.
The results show that in June 2003 Biffa made a 126 million acquisition of Hales from RMC plus a 15 million purchase of vehicles and equipment for that operation. In the first half of the 2003-04 financial year Hales has already contributed an estimated 3 million to Biffa's PBIT and amortisation.
The report said: “Waste management’s turnover increased by 19.8% to 308.7m (for the UK and Belgium), benefiting from the first time contribution from the acquisition of Hales.”
Legal
The report said: “The results for the first half-year include the costs of settling a legal dispute and an insurance credit (of a broadly similar scale). These two items have been allocated to UK central costs so as to provide more comparable figures, half-year-on-half-year, for the three UK business units of Collection, Landfill and Special Waste.”
At least part of these costs are thought to be related to Biffa's involvement earlier this year in a legal suit filed by members of the public living near the waste company's Trecatti landfill site, near Merthyr Tydfil. The 250 plaintiffs claimed that the site caused a nuisance, mainly due to odours, and Biffa was rumoured to be paying a total of 1.25 million in compensation (see letsrecycle.com story).
To see a full copy of the report, go to the Severn Trent website.
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