Q3 Results Announcement

London, 17 November 2014

HSS Hire Group announces third quarter 2014 results

Robust organic growth maintains strong trading momentum

HSS Hire Group (“HSS” or “the Group”) today announces financial results for the 39 weeks ended 27 September 2014.

Nine months financial highlights

  • Turnover increased by 27.8% to £208.5m (2013: £163.1m)
    • through a combination of 18.6% organic growth and a significant contribution of 9.3% from specialist acquisitions
  • EBITDA increased by 27.7% to £51.7m* (2013: £40.5m)

Third quarter financial highlights

  • Turnover increased by 20.4% to £77.9m (2013: £64.7m)
    • comprising of organic growth of 17.2%, supplemented by a 3.2% increase from the specialist acquisitions of Apex Generators and TecServ
  • EBITDA increased by 21.2% to £22.9m* (2013: £18.9m)

* EBITDA adjusted to remove certain exceptional costs.

Nine months trading and operating highlights

  • Group continuing to perform in line with expectations
  • Primary focus on business customers in the maintain and operate segments of the tool hire market underpins a further strong increase in turnover
  • Long-term investments in branch network, fleet and strategic acquisitions continue to deliver profitable growth
  • Specialist businesses, ABird (generators) and UK Platforms (powered access) continue to perform well year to date, while the 2014 acquisitions of Apex Generators and TecServ contributed an increase of 3% to Group turnover during the third quarter
  • Steady increase in the size of the hire fleet in line with the improved market opportunity
  • Healthy growth in the HSS OneCall service
  • 14 new HSS Local Format Branches opened in the first nine months of 2014, with roll-out accelerating through the period, providing local trades with a core range for collection, supported by next day delivery from HSS’ national hire fleet

Chris Davies, Chief Executive Officer at HSS Hire Group, said:

“The Group maintained its strong trading momentum in the third quarter with organic growth of 17 per cent, continuing the robust trend established in the first half of the year. Importantly, we continued to deliver healthy growth across all our customer groups and businesses with total revenue of £78m, up 20 per cent year-on-year, and EBITDA growth of 21 per cent.

“These strong results demonstrate the effectiveness of our customer-centric approach and primary focus on the maintain and operate segments of the tool hire market. Looking ahead, we remain confident about the potential of our long-term strategy to continue to generate strong revenue growth and high returns on capital.”

Under the ownership of Exponent, which acquired the Group in October 2012, HSS has continued to expand its operations and invest in its technology platforms and in strategic acquisitions that support its organic growth plan. As a result, the Group has grown a business which it believes is well placed to benefit from improving economic conditions. As HSS embarks on the next stage of its development, it has started to explore sources of funding, including the public equity markets. The Group will inform its stakeholders if it decides to proceed with a new funding arrangement as appropriate.

Conference call

A conference call for Senior Secured Notes investors will be held at 14:00hrs GMT on Monday 17 November 2014. If you would like to participate in this call, please register by email using the following email address: investors@hss.com.

Further information

For further information please visit: www.hsshiregroup.com. Download HSS’s Q3 2014 Report at www.hsshiregroup.com/financial-results. If you would like to be added to our distribution list for announcements relating to the Senior Secured Notes, please email: investors@hss.com.

Further enquiries:
Fiona McFadden, Head of PR, Founded
fiona.mcfadden@founded.com +44 (0)7786 736 706 / +44 (0)20 3747 3800

Robert Halls, Corporate Development Manager, HSS Hire
rhalls@hss.com / +44(0)7792 153 525

Notes to Editors:

HSS Hire Group provides tool and equipment hire and related services in the UK and Ireland through a nationwide network of over 250 locations. Focusing primarily on the operate and maintain segments of the market, 90% of its revenues come from business customers. HSS was acquired by Exponent Private Equity in October 2012. For more information please see www.hsshiregroup.com

Cautionary statement

The information contained in this release does not constitute investment, legal, accounting, regulatory, taxation or other advice and the information does not take into account your investment objectives or legal, accounting, regulatory, taxation or financial situation or particular needs. You are solely responsible for forming your own opinions and conclusions on such matters and the market and for making your own independent assessment of the information. Investors and prospective investors in the securities of any issuer within the HSS Group should make their own independent investigation and appraisal of the business and financial condition of such issuer and the nature of the securities. Any decision to purchase securities of the HSS Group or any issuer within the HSS Group should be made solely on the basis of your own evaluation of the merits, risks and suitability of such investment based on the information you have, including publicly available information about the HSS Group and its affiliates, without relying on the HSS Group or any other person or on this release.

The inclusion of financial information in this release or any related document should not be regarded as a representation or warranty by the HSS Group or any issuer within the HSS Group or any of their respective affiliates, advisors or representatives or any other person as to the accuracy or completeness of such information’s portrayal of the financial condition or results of operations by the HSS Group or any issuer within the HSS Group and should not be relied upon when making an investment decision. Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. The HSS Group nor any issuer within the HSS Group undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement.