James Fisher & Sons Plc – Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2017

* excludes separately disclosed items

Highlights:

·       Revenue up 9%, exceeding £500m for the first time

·       Underlying operating profit up 10%

o        Increases in Marine Support, Specialist Technical and Tankships

o        Marine Support ahead 17%

·       Underlying profit before tax 10% higher at £50.3m

·       Dividends increased for 23^rd consecutive year, up 10% to 28.7 pence per share

Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer, Nick Henry, said:

“James Fisher had another good year in 2017 producing an underlying profit before tax of £50.3m, an increase of 10% over the prior year. Three of our four divisions improved their results with Marine Support leading the way with a 17% improvement in profits.

The strength of the Group's business model with its broad spread of activities across the marine sector; its strong international presence and its ability to innovate and grow new businesses gives the Board a positive view of the year ahead and confidence of the Group's potential to provide further growth and value for our shareholders in the future.”

Chairman's Statement

Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2017

This is the last year that I shall be writing this statement as Chairman and therefore I am particularly pleased to be able to report that James Fisher and Sons plc had another good year in 2017 producing an underlying profit before tax of £50.3m, an increase of 10% over the prior year.  This reflected the strength of the Group's business model with its broad spread of activities across the marine sector; its strong international presence and its ability to innovate and grow new businesses.

Three of our four divisions improved their results with Marine Support leading the way with a 17% improvement in profits generated by new markets in Brazil, the Middle East and offshore renewables. Specialist Technical delivered another strong performance making good progress with the delivery of its project pipeline and the Indian submarine rescue contract in particular. Tankships continued its run of profit increases generated by high vessel utilisation levels and careful attention to costs. Offshore Oil managed a result only marginally below the prior year: demand began to firm in some sectors towards year end while the division was also successful in opening new opportunities in the Middle East, Asia and in subsea decommissioning.

Group revenue for the year grew 9% to £505.4m (2016: £466.0m). An increase in the Group's underlying effective tax rate to 17.2% (2016: 15.4%), held back the increase in underlying diluted earnings per share to 7% at 81.4 pence per share. Statutory diluted earnings per share were 79.5 pence (2016: 78.7 pence).

With a number of major projects underway, careful attention has been paid to managing cash flow this year in the face of the expected increase in working capital. This build-up squeezed our cash conversion rate to 56% in 2017 and despite this, the year-end balance sheet gearing remained at a conservative 47% (2016: 41%) with the ratio of net debt (excluding bonds) to underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at 1.6 times (2016: 1.4 times).

The underlying strength of the Group's performance and the positive outlook for the year ahead has led the Board to propose an increase in the final dividend to 19.3 pence (2016: 17.6 pence) per share making a total for the year of

28.7 pence per share, an increase of 10% compared with 2016.