LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Energy procurement consultant Inspired Energy disposed of its SME division on Friday, allowing it to focus exclusively on its strategy of providing assurance and utility cost optimisation services to corporate energy consumers.
Inspired Energy disposed of the SME division to its management team by way of a £10.5m buyout.

The AIM-listed group considered the SME division to be a "non-core activity", contributing just 7% of total revenues during the first half of 2020.

Chief executive Mark Dickinson said: "Unlike the corporate division, where assurance services have performed better than our Covid sensitised model, and optimisation services where FY2020 performance is impacted by deferrals to project delivery, but is expected to recover in FY2021, the SME division has proved less resilient to the pandemic.

"This transaction allows the group to focus solely on our core service offering to corporate energy consumers with a business that is more resilient to the Covid pandemic in FY2021."

In terms of recent trading, Inspired added that its SME unit was projected to contribute underlying earnings of roughly £1.2m less than current full-year expectations.

However, Inspired added that trading in its corporate division "remains robust and ahead of management expectations" despite disruptions in the fourth quarter.

As of 1050 GMT, Inspired shares were down 5.66% at 13.68p.

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