Rental equipment provider Speedy Hire has further reduced its hire fleet as part of its optimisation programme, improving return on capital, asset utilisation and profits in the process.
Return on capital employed by Speedy Hire is expected to have risen roughly 11% in its most recent trading year, up from 7.7% in the prior year, the group said in a Monday morning trading update.

Speedy's average asset utilisation for the eleven months to February 2018 was 55.4%, a 4.3% year-on-year improvement, helping bring net debt to approximately £80m after the £23m worth of expenditure used by the firm to fund several acquisitions.

The dual-listed group noted that its newest acquisitions were "performing in line with expectations and revenue and cost synergies are being realised as planned."

As a result of Speedy's "renewed focus on both SME customers and services revenues, and despite the recent liquidation of Carillion", its full-year revenues were still expected to be 6% ahead of the prior year, while pre-tax profits were expected to be ahead of its previous guidance.

As of 1420 GMT, shares had grown 7.66% to 52.80p.

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