Pre-tax profit more than doubled to £5.0m (2011 H1: £2.1m). Underlying pre-tax profit was up 55% to £9.5m (2011 H1: £6.1m).
During the first half, total revenues in the UK increased by 6% to £57.0m (2011 H1: £53.7m). Rental revenues increased by 1% to £52.4m (2011 H1: £51.8m), with annual pricing improvements continuing to compensate for lower year on year volumes.
During the first half, the UK business began a planned fleet renewal programme that will replace some 1,700 rental units during 2012. The disposal of the replaced rental units is underway and has generated £3.0m of disposal revenues in the first half (2011 H1: £1.5m).
Underlying operating profits in the UK increased to £7.2m (2011 H1: £5.8m), with margins improving to 12.7% (2011 H1: 10.9%).
Group chief executive Don Kenny said: "Performance in the first half of the year has been good, with our results coming in ahead of our original expectations. Revenues, profits, margins and our ROCE [return on capital employed] have all improved over 2011 whilst net debt has continued to fall."
Lavendon has operations in the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The equipment fleet totals more than 19,000 units and the group employs more than 1,600 people.
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