LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Gas heating, electrical and building services provider Bilby updated the market on its trading on Friday, reporting that despite the challenges of Covid-19, it delivered a "robust" performance in the six months ended 30 September.
The AIM-traded firm said it saw a drop in revenues during the first quarter, directly as a result of Covid-19, as employees could not safely access customer properties, and certain elements of planned works were deferred.

It said the nature of its services meant that the majority of the work was delayed, rather than cancelled, reflected by the 54% uptick in second quarter revenue over the first quarter.

As a result, Bilby said it expected to report revenues of £23.4m for the first half, down from £29.8m year-on-year, and an EBITDA, pre-IFRS 16 leases, of £1.5m, compared to £2.1m a year earlier, and in line with its expectations.

The board said that, following the "significant steps" the company took in the previous year to strengthen its balance sheet and improve its working capital position, it continued to focus on cash generation and its net debt position.

As a result, it was expecting to report a decrease of £2.3m in net debt to £4.9m as compared to 31 March.

Net cash at period end totalled £2.5m, providing headroom of £5m against the overdraft facility.

During the period, Bilby said it continued its efforts in driving further efficiencies and creating greater cohesion within the group, resulting in exceptional restructuring costs of £0.4m, delivering an annualised cost saving of more than £1m.

Elements of those cost savings were being reinvested to greater support future revenue generation, and had already generated a positive impact on the business, the board reported.

The directors said that, since the arrival of David Bullen as chief executive officer, Bilby had spent the majority of its time focused on essential restructuring and creating the required platform from which to drive sustainable, profitable growth.

To ensure that momentum continued, it said chief operating officer Lee Venables would preside over the operational board to continue to prioritise "delivering operational excellence", while Chris Webster would concentrate on his role as managing director of DCB Kent.

"During the period, dominated by Covid-19, Bilby has gone above and beyond to ensure customers continued to receive our critical services and to support the communities we operate," said CEO David Bullen.

"As a result, we delivered a resilient performance which is testimony to the tenacity and stability of our business and a credit to our hard-working, flexible colleagues across the group, who continued performing at high levels despite the challenging circumstances."

Bilby said it would publish its half-year results for the six months ended 30 September on 1 December.

At 1031 GMT, shares in Bilby were down 4.15% at 25.4p.

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