Ultimate Finance

When Ultimate Finance floated back in 2002, the expectation in the City was that chief executive Brian Sumner would not only improve sales substantially year on year, but also make the group profitable within three years. This is exactly what Sumner has done; the latest results for the year to June showing sales up 95% to £2.31m and last year's loss of £338,609 converted into a £20,581 profit. The group's core services are factoring and invoice discounting and its client base, which has been grown from scratch, is now 186 strong. During the year, over £82m of sales were financed, over twice the level of 2004. Following the opening of an office in Birmingham (which has already 'exceeded expectations') the group has improved its coverage of England and Wales and this, combined with new product launches, should ensure that Ultimate continues to substantially outperform a sector growing at an excess of 10% per annum. Following the move into the black, broker WH Ireland is expecting profits to grow ten-fold this year to £250,000 on sales of £3.9m. By 2007, sales are expected to top £5.7m and profits to amount to circa £0.5m. Says Sumner: 'we have the products, the service and the geographical coverage to keep maintain our growth and we're comfortable with the forecasts.' At the current share price, the group sports a forward p/e of 18.5 for 2006, falling to 9.2 for 2007. Worth a look.