Eurowag: Trucking services firm’s shares jump but still no plans to pay dividend

Eurowag has reported a jump in revenue for the first half of 2024, while the FTSE 250 trucking services group’s profit slid and it said it still had no plans to pay a dividend three years after listing in London.

Its shares gained as much as five per cent on Thursday to high their highest level since March. The stock is down 44 per cent since Eurowag floated in 2021.

The Czech firm, also known as WAG Payment Solutions, posted a pretax profit of €4.2m (£3.6m) for the six months, down from €8.5m (£7.2m) in the same period last year.

On an adjusted basis, profit fell to €21.6m (£18.2m) from €25.3m (£21.3m).

The lorry management software and fuel cards payment provider pinned the decline on “higher amortisation from acquired intangibles and interest costs relating to increased leverage”.

Eurowag’s total net revenue rose 18.4 per cent to €141.0m (£118.9m), boosted by a 31.3 per cent surge in mobility solutions revenue driven by its integration of Polish group Inelo and “continued growth across all our products”. Eurowag completed its €306m (£265m) acquisition of Inelo last year.

The firm said it still had no plans to pay shareholders a dividend since listing on the London Stock Exchange three years ago.

“We remain disciplined and want to maintain our strong and robust balance sheet, therefore the group does not intend to pay dividends, as we continue to prioritise investment in growth,” said chief executive Martin Vohánka, who founded Eurowag in 1995.

Commenting on the firm’s plans for capital allocation, Vohánka added: “Our priority continues to focus around investment in the platform together with integrating the technologies and products of our acquired businesses. We expect to reduce duplications across IT, hardware, and technology processes.”

“M&A is important and we will continue to consider value-accretive M&A opportunities, however we are mindful of our current leverage position,” he continued.

The firm reported a fall in its net debt during the first half of 2024 to €302.4m (£255m), from €316.8m (£267.2m) at the end of last year.

Its leverage ratio came in at 2.6 times adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which the firm hailed as a “marked improvement”. This ratio was 2.9 times at the end of last year.

In 2023, Eurowag swung to a pretax loss of €39.3m (£33.1m), from a €28.0m (£23.6m) profit in 2022.