Five-a-side football operator Powerleague has been boasting of its defensive strength, with results for the year to June in line with expectations.
 
Although undoubtedly a consumer-facing business, five-a-side football is proving an eminently more resilient market than retailing or restaurants, for example. Pitch revenues, which make up three quarters of turnover, continue to hold up a fist up to the wider economic conditions, rising 2% like-for-like over the year, with .
 
But the company’s appeal as a growth stock rests on its ability to add ever more pitches and to turn them profitable. The group added a hundred more pitches during the year, 30 that it constructed itself and 70 it acquired from the £17.4m cash purchase of five JJB SoccerDomes.
 
With no acquisitions to boost last year’s figures, sales rolled forward 14% to £26.3m and pre-tax profits were flat at £5m. Although cash generation remains robust, up 8% to £6.9m, debt swelled from £18.5m to £38.4m, inspiring the board to hold the dividend at 1.1p, ‘until there is greater clarity on the direction of the UK economy’.
 
Their intention this year is to concentrate on the current portfolio, having now made one post year-end acquisition in Stockton-on-Tees. Chief executive Sean Tracy insists the pipeline, including two sites with planning permission in place and six others less far down the line, ‘is strong,’ although ‘the planning process is tougher than when we started – though that creates a good defensive barrier to entry.’
 
Shares in the company have dived from a 2007 high of 115p to the present three-year low, where they trade, on forecast earnings of 5.1p from independent broker Numis, on an unfairly low forward p/e ratio of 6.5 times. Buy.

Powerleague	AIM	£28.43m	34.75p	0.00p
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Other company articles:
Powerleague			02/10/2008
Powerleague			06/08/2008
Powerleague Group			18/03/2008
Numis Securities			30/10/2007
Powerleague keeps on scoring			29/10/2007