Ashtead (AHT) - The recovery continues (AHT)

Intraday chart and 6 month chart
10 day chart


Accounting issues and funding resolved. UK restructuring complete. Shareholders can look to a brighter future. Buyout/ takeover rumours should keep speculators happy as well.

AFX on 9 mth results announced 15 Mar 2005

Ashtead swings to Q3 pretax profit pre-goodwill of 0.8 mln stg vs 6.6 mln loss

LONDON (AFX) - Ashtead Group PLC, a provider rental equipment to the
construction industry, said it swung to a pretax pre-goodwill profit in the
three months to end January and that current trading is good in all its markets.
It swung to a third-quarter pretax profit before goodwill of 0.8 mln stg
from a loss of 6.6 mln stg the year-earlier quarter.
"Achievement of a pre-goodwill profit in what is by far our seasonally
weakest quarter underlines the strength of the recovery we have seen in all
three divisions," said chief executive George Burnett.
"Sunbelt again delivered a strong performance with third-quarter dollar
revenues up 19.3 pct reflecting improving markets, increasing market share and
the shift from ownership to rental in the US. A-Plant and Ashtead Technology
both also exceeded last year's third-quarter performance by a significant
margin," he added.
Group pretax losses in the third quarter narrowed to 1.4 mln stg from 14.6
mln.
In the nine-month period sales climbed 4.1 pct to 398.1 mln stg, EBITDA by
12.4 pct to 125.9 mln and total divisional operating profit by 61.2 pct to 51.9
mln, despite a 10 pct year-on-year decline in the US dollar.
Nine-month pretax profit before goodwill increased to 20.9 mln stg from 4.5
mln, while including goodwill it swung to a pretax profit of 14.3 mln stg from a
loss of 23.1 mln stg in the year-earlier period.
newsdesk@afxnews.com

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01 Apr 04 Moody's Ratings on New Bonds

Some useful links re the court case

Insight into how MMs work

Bashers

NB Something seems to have deleted all the hyperlinks in the header! No time to sort out. Sorry. GH 7 May 2005.