Reported earnings (EBITDA) at One51 increased 6.8% to €21.9m in 2014. When the sale of Irish Pride is stripped out, on a like-for-like basis earnings were up 11% to €21.6m. The strong results in the transformed group were driven by operational performance in the plastics and hazardous waste business.

Revenues increased 10% to €276.5m during the year, principally from the acquisition of Straight plc. This saw profit after tax rising from €2.8m to €12.7m, while net debt at year end decreased by a significant €33m to €7.4m.

The group recently raised €22.6m in new equity and refinanced its debt facilities through to 2019. This includes €90m in committed facilities and €24m in uncommitted facilities, putting the business on a strong financial footing.

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The balance sheet (equity) increased by 55% in 2014 to €159.4m, primarily due to the group increasing the book value of its NTR (US windfarms mainly) investment from €1.39/share to €2.10/share (see Table 1).

This means that One51s 23.6% investment in NTR now accounts for 30% of the One51 balance sheet. This percentage could increase depending on the outcome of the independent valuation of NTR which is being carried out by IBI which is due in the next few weeks.

Comment

As One51 looks set to offload its NTR investment, this could bring in up to €75m in cash.

While it is not fundamental to the business, One51 could move to a net cash position in 2015 on the back of operational performance alone and with other small investments yet to offload, it would allow the group possibly return some value to shareholders in the form of a dividend or a share buyback.

However, this would depend on the appetite of shareholders who have, it’s fair to say, stuck with their investment for no return and in some cases watched it diminish. They may be more interested in the longer-term potential by keeping the money in to grow the business and the share price.

The core plastics and hazardous waste is profitable with high (EBITDA) margins of 13%. The existing bank facilities available to One51 combined with the likely cash injection from the exit from NTR would give the group about €175m to spend in acquiring new businesses related to this profitable core.

With some tidying up still to be done, it looks likely a stock market flotation is at least 16 months away.