Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to the half one HSS results presentation. First of all, introductions. I'm Steve Ashmore, and today, I have a guest presenter with me, none other than Greig Thomas.
Morning, everybody.
Who is the CFO for ProService. More of that later. Richard Jones, who is the newly appointed interim CFO, is on honeymoon and chose the honeymoon over this event, which, I quite frankly don't quite understand. But, we will press on. It's something to do with it'd be a very short marriage if he chose the other way around. So with Greig on board, I shall take you through the results for this first half. So, it's pretty much a standard agenda that we flashed through. So why don't I go straight to the highlights and break those down for you? So looking at the highlights for the first half, it breaks down into three clear sections for us. First of all, financials, and that will all relate to half one performance.
I shall give the highlights, then Greig will go into a little bit more detail. Then, probably the mainstay of this presentation is the strategy update. We're all, as a team at HSS, pretty excited by this next step. I want to take you through the highlights of those, and then I've got a few slides to take you through a bit more detail, and then I just want to give you a little bit of an update on current trading. So without further ado, starting with financials, we called it a solid performance against the background. So we've seen revenue grow 3.2% in the half, and this is despite seasonal weakness. So we've had a poor in terms of getting heaters out winter and poor in terms of getting coolers out summer.
So we've seen that product weakness, and we've seen some what we call short-term demand softness in certain end markets, which RMI fit-out, and I think the beginning of the election sort of dulled demand a little bit. But against that, we've seen that 3.2% growth. If we refer to ProService now, that's 3.4%, and the key driver behind that is our services growth. We talk about this generally, but we've seen double-digit. That's, to be clear on that one, is rehire and training. As far as the rest of the base goes, we talk about the targeted cost actions taken, which Greig will take you through, but moving to the profitability, EBITDA, EBITA lines.
And I say this following statement just to give you an idea of underlying trading, but if we excluded seasonal performance, we're pretty much in line with where we were this time last year. We sold our power business in March. We completed near the end of March, earlier in the year. So when we look at our balance sheet, we see on an IFRS 16 basis with a leverage at one times, pretty robust. We used the proceeds to pay down some of the term debt and keep some in group. All in all, the board are therefore minded to recommend a dividend of 0.18, which is pretty much in line with where we were this time last year. It is in line with where we were this time last year.
And they do that because they've got quite a lot of confidence behind the strategy, which I'm gonna take you through the bones of now. So the whole game plan we've shaped on the chevron on the left there, which is to unlock and maximize shareholder value. So today, we are announcing that we are fully separating the business into HSS ProService and HSS Operations. This will be done end of September. So in essence, HSS PLC becomes a holding company for those two separate businesses. We've been working towards this for quite a long time now, and I've played out this in many of the updates building the elements that make allow us permit us to deliver this separation.
But where we are now is, I think each business is ripe and needs releasing to develop its own strategies. We see them as complementary growth strategies to each other, but they will have entirely separate management teams, and I will go through that in subsequent slides. So why now? Well, we've seen what we call good strategic momentum, but it's good momentum in both businesses. In terms of ProService, we've seen, when last time I updated, which was early May, we saw 1,000 buyers on the marketplace. This has now expanded to 2,200 buyers, and they're growing at 38%. So those buyers in the first half versus those buyers the first half previous year have grown 38%.
In terms of operations, we think the momentum is there because we've now got a footprint with 104 stores in with our merchant partners across the UK, but mainly in the major conurbations, and we're seeing good growth in those stores as well. So all this means that we've got the two separate businesses, but we've got a lot of work to do and cover to get us to a point where we have entirely separated and running these businesses well. We say we've got a lot of wood to chop in that period, which I'll take you through. So, as quoted in the RNS, we will be removing guidance for the foreseeable future.
Now, we're gonna have capital markets days, which Tom and John, which, I will introduce those, the CEOs of the businesses, will host in 2025, probably around Q2, when the growth strategies will be further detailed, and explained. So the final piece then is current trading. It's fair to say challenging market continues, especially around seasonal and some end markets. We just haven't had a summer this year, which has affected us. However, we are pleased to say we are mobilizing a number of large contracts which have been won over the summer. The reality is, we don't expect those to be mobilized till the end of quarter four, the new year, and we've chosen our words carefully, somewhat encouraged by lead macroeconomic indicators.
What we mean by that is when we see the indices that some of the federations are pointing out, such as CPA, they're looking at growth into next year, the ERA growth into next year. And if you looked at the PMI, it is indicating that for the sixth consecutive month, we've got growth, as in the score is over fifty. And so when you look at these things, they look encouraging, but we are waiting to see those materialize because at the moment, what we're seeing is a pretty flat environment. It's worthwhile saying, obviously, with the news of ISG recently, it's just worthwhile noting that our exposure to ISG is pretty minimal. I think we are circa one hundred K. And the key point, I think the whole industry is looking at is how is the ramification.
So ISG, as a direct, we don't have many, but we want to understand how our customers, the subcontractors to ISG, you know, how it impacts those over time. So directly, but there's minimal impact for ourselves. So with that, I shall pass on to Greig, who will take you through the financials.
Thanks, Steve. I'll just start with a little bit of housekeeping. Steve mentioned we disposed of our power businesses on the seventh of March, and so results in the P&L and income statement are presented in a continuing ops basis. The balance sheet does not get restated, but note 17 in the accounts explains the impact of the disposal. Okay, our revenue in half one 2024 was GBP 170.8 million, 3.2% up on the prior year, despite, as Steve said, the seasonal weakness and softness in some end markets, namely housing, RMI, and fit out. And that growth was ahead of market, with the ERA forecasting growth for FY 2024 at 2.7%.
We delivered adjusted EBITDA of £26.9 million and adjusted EBITA of £7.3 million, both of which, after adjusting for that seasonal performance, are broadly in line with half one 2023, and these results were achieved after absorbing £0.8 million of tech spend into the P&L this year that would have previously been capitalized. Our spend in this area is shifting from CapEx to OpEx as our platform matures. In addition, we charged £0.7 million of backdated rent reviews in half one 2024, which under IFRS 16, can't be recorded until contractually agreed, so we don't expect that level to recur. Given the trading backdrop, we're pleased with ROCE of 14.9%. That remains ahead of our cost of capital, and in fact, the reduction of half one 2023 is mainly driven by seasonal. Our balance sheet remains in robust shape.
Net debt on a non-IFRS 16 basis reduced from GBP 55.1 million - GBP 37.9 million. Following the sale of our power business in March, we've been able to hold leverage at 1x on a non-IFRS 16 basis, and as a result, as Steve said, we're maintaining our interim dividend to GBP 0.18, despite the reduction in earnings per share, and that decision reflects the board's confidence both in our balance sheet and our strategy. I'm gonna move on now to talk through our our segments, and ProService is the first one of those, so our marketplace business. It's been a resilient performance here. Our revenue grew by 3.4% in what's been a challenging market. Our services growth, which is rehire and training, is in double digits, and we've seen margin expansion there.
Sales in our new verticals, building materials and equipment sales, have doubled, and the EBITA performance is the result of change in mix, and that's largely driven by seasonality again, and the additional tech costs mentioned on the last slide. Moving on to the right-hand side now. Our marketplace momentum is really building. You might remember we launched version 2 of the marketplace in December 2023, and since then, we've seen adoption accelerate. We now have 2,200 buyers, and it's worth noting that we've achieved that without any material investment in marketing. We're also seeing very strong growth. Buyers that are using the platform are growing at 38%. So if you just contrast that with our overall growth, you'll understand why we're so excited about the opportunity here.
Twenty-six percent of contracts originated through our self-service technologies in half one, compared to fifteen percent last year. Actually, if we look at that since May, that figure has been more than thirty percent. It is worth just noting that Amey accounts for around five percent of that number, and so as that contract ends in December, we'll see that percentage drop accordingly. From a seller perspective, we continue to develop our extensive network. We've now got around 1,000 sellers, and we launched our fourth vertical, fuel, in September. Moving on to our UK operations business. Here, we have seen revenue drop by 8.7% to GBP 49.3 million, heavily impacted by the seasonal and end market softness that we've talked about.
Nevertheless, we've been able to maintain utilization at 56%, through careful management of fleet, and we have taken targeted cost action to mitigate the impact of trading on profit, and that's both been on a variable and fixed cost basis. Those efforts were offset by the backdated rent reviews that I mentioned earlier, those all relate to our ops business. Again, moving to the right-hand side of the slide, we continue to develop our low-cost builders merchant model. We now have 104 locations with 22 partners across the U.K., and that model continues to perform well. We saw same-store growth of 13% in half one twenty-four. We'll continue to look for opportunity here. We have another 10 locations in our pipeline to open before the end of the year. Turning to our final segment, Ireland.
We have a super business here, which we think is well-positioned for growth. Revenue at GBP 13.4 million, was up 1.1%, and within this, we saw hire income grow at 5%, with growth there in Q2 stepping up from Q1. That was overall tempered by lower equipment sales. Growth has been driven by the strength of our relationships with large contractors, and we've invested in hire vehicle fleet to position ourselves well for growth, which has resulted in an increased depreciation charge. Moving on to the right-hand side, we just really wanted to shine a light on some of the opportunity we see in Ireland. The chart shows expected growth in European data center capacity.
There are no figures on the Y-axis, the data is proprietary, but the point is, you can see that the growth is expected to be large, and that's driven by AI. There are some numbers we do have, though. In Ireland, there are around eighty DCs in operation, twenty-one under construction, and more than twenty in planning. We come back to the strength of our relationships. We have preferred supplier status with the main contractor on all twenty-one sites under construction, and we have a presence on those sites, so with our high-quality fleet and the rehire supply chain, we're well-placed to capitalize on this opportunity as we go forward, and returning now to a group view, I just want to reiterate that we are really pleased with the strength of our balance sheet and our returns.
Net debt is GBP 17.2 million lower at GBP 37.9 million. We used GBP 12.5 million of the GBP 20 million proceeds from the sale of Power to pay down debt. Our cash conversion, which we define as operating cash flow over EBITDA, both on a pre-exceptional basis, is well over 100%, and we have liquidity headroom of GBP 75 million to support the implementation of our strategy. Moving on to returns, we continue to deliver ROCE ahead of cost of capital at 14.9%, and as you can see from the chart, were we to adjust that for the seasonal impact, we would have had ROCE in line with the prior year, 18%. Okay, I'm gonna hand back to Steve, who will take us through the strategic review. Steve.
Thank you very much, Greig. So this is probably the main part of the announcement for ourselves. So this slide, the next slide on, describes our journey over the past seven years, really, to this point. And we've looked at it from sort of three aspects, really. One is how we've evolved the network, the second is how we've developed the technology in our journey, respectively, and the final piece is the organizational side. So with network, we've been through many times the structural changes we've made, but moving into the merchant network has been the big move for us.
And if you look to the right-hand side, top right gray area there, what we have now is a really efficient tool hire model, firmly established, and what it needs now is its own direct sales force to go after those local customers. The second piece, the technology, we launched Brenda, as you know, 2019, 2020. We rolled that out, we've developed our platform, ProService Marketplace. It's gone in place version two recently. We've seen the acceleration and adoption of self-serve at the 2,200, and we're on the right-hand side now where the platform is performing well, but we, quite frankly, need to get the ProService platform focused on key marketplace metrics. In terms of organization, we've developed that over a period of time.
As you know, we spent a lot of time, 2022, 2023, legally separating the businesses. We're now in a shape now where we use the words, "The businesses are ready to be liberated," and the yellow sash at the bottom suggests the final step is what we're introducing today, which is the new group structure and the splitting of the business. So if we step on to the next slide, what we can see is how that now looks. So, as I said, HSS PLC becomes, in essence, a holding company, and you've got the three legs that Greig described previously. So, first of all, starting with myself, there'll be no longer a group CEO. I will move to be exec chair of ProService.
But I'm delighted. I gave a sneak preview before of this, but I'm delighted to announce that Tom Shorten is the CEO for ProService business, and John Overman is the CEO for our HSS Operations business. The teams below, the CFO is Greig. Greig's helping me out today, but they're all fully staffed and in place, ready to go. And on the right-hand side, we've got Alan Peterson, who maintains the non-exec chair of the board. He will also be the non-exec chair of Operations business with John reporting in, and the Irish business, with Michael reporting in. So Michael sits on as the third limb in this leg. The team is fully in play.
It's as it was and pretty much focused, as Greig has articulated, on expanding within the country, but also getting after that potential behind the data centers. Structurally, that's what the business will look like. All in place, all running as we speak, so no to-be appointments, so the teams are in play. If we step on, it's probably worth talking a little bit about what we see as the sort of key vision and the next steps of those businesses. With ProService, as always, we've mentioned this before, it's to be the marketplace leader, building services in U.K. and Europe. The mission being to aggregate buyers and sellers across a broad range of products and services.
So the next key steps are, number one, we talked about focusing on being a marketplace, but increase the number of buyers who use that marketplace. Number two is expand the products, services, and verticals available for buyers. We talk about creating this community, so when you, as a customer, land into ProService, if you are, for example, in fit out, you will have a landing page with information around you, which is pertinent to your sector. Not only that, it will also offer up the relevant products and services that are normally used by that particular sector. So developing that, enriching that, the more services, verticals we get on there, the more buyers we get on there, the more vertical services we get on there. So drive down that path.
And finally, the critical piece for ProService to develop its own, sorry, implement its own ERP, just to get out and run independently of the current group's legacy finance system... In terms of operations in Ireland, it's pretty much the same vision there, is to be that the most efficient, high quality, high service rental operator in the UK and Ireland, respectively. But for the UK team, John's team, the first step will be building their own direct sales force and then focusing on winning those local customers. We've gone into all the merchant partners, big, strong regional players for that very reason, because the customers are there already, and we can start to develop that, and we've seen positive success so far. And obviously, the other, you know, driver will be on optimizing the fleet utilization and efficiency.
In Ireland, it's just continuing to develop that market-leading position that Michael and the team have, but also pursuing further expansion and supporting our customers in with data centers across Ireland. Now, the key point on this slide is probably at the bottom, where it says trading agreement. We will be establishing a clear trading agreement between ProService and operations. Also, we'll have a transitional service agreement in place because we have central functions which will be aligned to one or the other business, and obviously, they will provide services, for example, HR or group finance. So I wanna talk a little bit more about trading agreement now to complete the picture. So if we step on to the next slide, what you'll see there is laid out how this is gonna be implemented.
So the trading agreement will exist from end of September, right the way through to early 2026. But it won't be a drop off a cliff edge then. The chevrons indicate continuing relationship we anticipate going forward, but it'll be different to the trading agreement, which is quite solid between the two businesses in the interim period. But after that, you know, it'll be an ongoing relationship. From now till probably early 2025, we've got a period of change where we're gonna. I think the expression is, we've got a lot of wood to chop. So if we start with the basics, we're gonna realign some of the local customers to our operations business, so that means settling in that change.
We then have with Pro implementing the new ERP to support ProService and allow it to be completely separate from the group's legacy systems. We've then got the settling in of the new structures and teams. We've got them in play, but we now need to get settled. We need to employ the direct sales teams for the operations and to get into our new system, new ways of working, and make sure we've settled in well. We've got to optimize, continue to optimize the route to market. And obviously, I've talked about a trading agreement and the period of time, but that needs bedding in between the two businesses and making sure that we overcome any minor obstacles that are between them, and also making sure we manage and fulfill the TSA well.
So that period of change is quite, quite a lot of work, and for that reason, we're removing guidance during this transitionary period. We're gonna continue to review that, but if you look across, to the medium-term ambition, it gives you an idea of what we're driving towards with these businesses. So ProService, we've always talked about getting seven thousand buyers using the marketplace. This isn't a limit, this is just our, you know, next step. We've already, stepped on since May to now, adding another one thousand odd, buyers onto the marketplace, so we certainly see that achievable and beyond. We're gonna look at moving into new product verticals, but the... I think the key metrics on this is doubling the EBITDA margin, i.e., exploiting the operational leverage that such a marketplace, facilitates.
In terms of operations, in the medium term, I see us moving to probably around 150 locations, primarily around the major conurbations, because that's where we get the real traction. Delivering revenue growth above market and also, return on capital, always above the cost of capital. So Tom and John, respectively, will take you through their detailed growth plans, in the capital markets days, which again, I anticipate being around Q2 2025, where they'll talk about the growth strategies, how things have settled, how they're seeing it play out, et cetera. So in those four slides, that's what we wanted to articulate today is the clear split of our business now. Tom running Pro, John running Ops, with Michael continuing in that Irish role.
So if we go on to the final slide, I think we're bringing it all together now. What we've got is just a summary of what we've talked about. So solid performance in challenging markets. I think we have seen that strategic momentum, but after a long period of time, a long period of effort by all the teams, we've got to the point at which we now have two businesses that we wanna liberate, allow them to follow their own strategies, which are complementary, but very distinct. So all in all, if you look at the banner at the bottom of the line, that's what we're all driving towards, which is try to create that optionality to unlock and maximize shareholder value. So that's it.
So operator, can I hand it back to you to take questions and answers? Oh, well, I'll give the answers. Take the questions, please.
If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally, as you will be advised when to ask your question. Once again, that's star one if you would like to ask a question. Now, first question comes from the line of Adrian Kearsey from Panmure Liberum. Please go ahead.
... Morning! Hopefully, you can hear me. In the latter part of the presentation, you hinted to extend to the number of verticals that you were planning to put through the pro side of the business. Would you perhaps be able to sort of give a hint of what kind of areas in broad terms you are thinking of in that regard?
Yeah, sure. So the verticals we've got at the moment, Adrian, we just added the fuel vertical, so we got four verticals. But what we want to do is add complementary, you know, verticals to our customer base. So it might be looking at waste management, it might be looking at, you know, calibration, it might be looking at people side. You know, anything like that which adds value to our customer base, that's what we're thinking of. And obviously, the one that I think I previously mentioned is training. We've got a link at the moment, but producing that as a clear vertical is also, you know, the one of the key next steps that we wanna take.
Thank you. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of David Brockton from Deutsche Numis. Please go ahead.
Good morning, all. I've got a few, actually, please. So firstly, can I just start on the demand outlook and what you're seeing post-election? I sort of note that you talk about lead indicators being positive. Are you seeing any green shoots? And if so, what segments and what segments are still relatively tough? Thank you.
Yeah. Good question, David. In fairness, you know, if I start with the, you know, what we've spoken of, you know, seasonal has not happened, and that's carried on into the second half. Personally, I've not seen a bounce back from the election. It's normally subdued in this market, but we've not seen that, you know, bounce back that we'd normally anticipate, so it's probably been pretty flat, really. So, you know, that's what we're seeing at the moment, but, you know, the encouraging signs that I spoke about is that when I look at any of the surveys out there, they're all talking about growth into next year. So, you know, CPA, ERA, all those sort of things, and I referenced the PMI.
There's been a consistent positive outlook, as in over 50 on the score, suggesting that we're gonna start and see things moving. And those are the bits that, you know, I'm sort of thinking straight off the top of my head, David. So I don't know if that answers the question. Hopefully, it gets near.
Yeah. Thanks very much. And then sort of next question or next two questions, just focusing on the pro service platform. Clearly, you're seeing what seemingly quite strong take up for the platform. I just wondered if you could just touch on whether you're seeing greater adoption by any particular type of customer and then finally, actually, just on that trading agreement, can you just maybe set out does that sort of drop off at the beginning of twenty twenty-six or and how does that sort of phasing work? Thanks.
Yeah. So customers using the platform first, the really, and we keep using this word encouraging, but I think it is. The piece about this is that it's a real broad church of customers so far that have used it. So we deliberately went out and targeted cohorts in the market. So you know, sort of from the region, large regionals, nationals, through to sole traders. And so we've done that, and we've had a positive reaction from them all. Now, there's different buying frequencies to those cohorts, but what we've seen when they get on the platform is just a real positive, as in the 38% you see, reaction. So I think when you get on there, regardless of the size, you see what you need, and you tend to buy or hire.
So we've seen that across all customer cohorts, so I don't think there's any one that's leading out. I'm looking over to Greig.
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah. So that's the sort of what we've seen so far on the platform. But onto the trading agreement. We've got this, you know, defined trading agreement, which will exist, as you rightly say, until early 2026. So then the agreement finishes, but we're not anticipating it'll fall off a cliff then. I think there'll still be a close relationship between the two businesses, and they'll work together as they move forward. There won't be a strict trading agreement that will finish at the, you know, early 2026, but I think still there'll be a trading relationship going forward. That's the best way I think of describing that.
Okay. Thanks very much, both.
Thanks, David.
We currently have no questions in the queue, so as another reminder, please press star one if you would like to ask a question. The next question, it comes from the line of Neville Harris from Radnor Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just one question from me. I understand you've withdrawn guidance clearly, but can you talk about what the additional extra annualized cost might be, for running the business, in this format going forward?
To be honest, Neville, the blunt answer is no, and that's a little bit why I, I'm sorry, I'm only laughing at this because I didn't mean to be rude.
That's okay. Being blunt is good, so.
So it's because we've withdrawn guidance just because the complexities behind you know the models are stepping forward. So you know that is unfortunately the short answer to that. Apologies if it's rude.
It's not rude at all. Don't worry.
We have no further questions in the queue, so I will hand the call back over to your host for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much for attending the call today. We appreciate it, appreciate your time. It's an exciting step for HSS in our move. It's a long time in the making, and today we finally got the opportunity to launch it. So thanks very much for attending, and our mission is, as we say on the last slide, is just to unlock and maximize shareholder value. So with that, I shall say thank you very much.