Best of the Best

Best of the Best (BotB), which attracts punters to its monthly spot-the-ball competition by showing off its sports car prizes in airport terminals, has met its reduced forecasts for the year to April.

The group increased its roster of airports by five to 15 during the year, including its first overseas site in Copenhagen as well as signing a seven-year, seven-site contract with 13% shareholder BAA. Even after warning in May that the loss of Heathrow Terminal 3 from the company’s portfolio would considerably dent profitability, Best of the Best still managed to grow pre-tax profits 21% to £860,000, from sales up 23.9% to £7.3m.

Chief executive William Hindmarch, who brought the company to AIM two years ago with 11 airports on its books, says the new financial year has started well, with like-for-like sales in May and June up 12%. Buoyed by this performance and with £1.7m of cash on the balance sheet, Hindmarch has recommended a maiden dividend of 1p a share.

Hindmarch also anticipates ‘great potential to augment growth’ through BotB’s online presence, on which will be placed 'more and more emphasis’ in the future. Further airport additions are obviously crucial and, with the UK now a mature market, growth depends on expansion overseas, where sales lead times are longer.

For the current year, house broker Charles Stanley forecasts profits of £1m and 5.43p of earnings, placing profitable BotB on a lowly forward p/e of 5.8. But, although very cheap, the shares could suffer turbulent trading against a weak consumer spending outlook, especially as BotB has warned on profits a number of times before and its high operational gearing leaves profits susceptible to even a small reduction in sales.

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