Billi drives top line growth

Positives emerged, particularly in H2, as the recovery commenced within the kettle controls market.

Billi was the architect of the revenue improvement, with LAICA also delivering a double-digit increase in the top line. Margins improved, notwithstanding a change in the mix.

Encouragingly, investor concerns on debt were allayed with the careful management of cash, and latterly as bankers raised the net debt/EBITDA covenant to 2.75x. With further emphasis on costs and cash conservation and a likelihood that its markets will begin to deliver more meaningful recovery in H2, none of this good news looks factored into the current valuation.

The focus is shifting from survival to recovery and as such, we increase our fair value / share to 173p (149p).