Stobart Group achieves pre-tax profit growth of 1700%

Infrastructure and support services firm Stobart Group Limited has rounded off a half-year of growth after seeing its profits leap 1700%.

The company’s pre-tax profit during the six months to August 31 hit £10.8m, up from £600k the year previous.

Turnover for the period was also up, with revenue from continuing operations growing 13% to £65.3m.

The growth comes on the back of string of high-profile appointments for Stobart. Ben Whawell, the new CEO of Stobart Energy, was hired as the division prepares to deliver more than 2m tonnes of biomass fuel by 2018.

Mark Adams, meanwhile, will become Stobart Group’s chief financial officer on November 28.

Stobart’s latest figures were boosted by the sale of 47 acres of an investment property in Speke, Liverpool, to auto giant Ford in May 2016.

The deal delivered a profit on disposal of £11.6m, but the total gain for Stobart since the acquisition stands at £20.7m when taking into account the £9.1m revaluation gain highlighted in the firm’s financial statements for the year ending February 29 2016.

The company’s Stobart Infrastructure division has retained six acres of land in Speke and is currently pursuing several development options.

Andrew Tinkler, Stobart group chief exec, said: “Stobart has continued to work towards delivering its clear targets for its three growth divisions; Energy, Aviation and Rail.

“It is extremely pleasing to see that we have achieved significant returns on investment from our property assets.”

He added: “The Speke transaction is an excellent example of this.”

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