VLG has delivered a pleasing and reassuring H1 result against a challenging backdrop. The recent acquisitions are performing strongly and it has been able to mitigate a lot of the recent incremental cost/inflation headwinds. Trading so far in H2 is slightly ahead of plan and it has a very strong order book which will lead to increased H2 weighting. Confidence in EBITDA forecasts is therefore high. We have, however, reduced our PBT/EPS forecasts on the back of higher D&A (non-cash) than expected. This hasn’t influenced our EBITDA based valuation, and our target price remains unchanged at 65p. On 4x EV/EBITDA reducing to 3x VLG is a BUY.
