TOUGH HALF TAKES SHINE OFF LAW FIRM

TOUGH HALF TAKES SHINE OFF LAW FIRM

SHINE Corporate's (ASX:SHJ) full-year earnings have slumped 50 per cent after a tumultuous year for the ASX-listed Brisbane law firm.

The $14.8 million net profit compares with $29.6 million in FY15 and comes despite a record year of billings by the group with customer receipts rising to $152.9 million from $134.6 million.

However, group revenue remained flat, edging 0.4 per cent higher to $151.5 million due to provisions made in the first half.

Shine showed some stability in the second half after the disastrous first half was impacted by the $17.5 million provision for work in progress after a review of operations revealed a number of personal injury cases on its books were unlikely to succeed.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of $24 million was at the lower end of its revised guidance issued in February.

Positives for Shine in the second half included an improved contribution from its subsidiaries, with EBITDA up 29 per cent to $3.3 million compared to a year earlier.

Shine today has also appointed its CEO Courtney Petersen, who has been with the company for 17 months, to the position of managing director too. After almost three decades with the company, outgoing managing director Simon Morrison will take on an executive director role. 

During the second half of this reporting period, Shine secured a long-awaited win through the settlement of a $250 million class action against a hip replacement manufacturer DePuy and Johnson & Johnson.

The company is expecting this to benefit its bottom line in FY17.

Shine CEO and managing director Courtney Petersen (pictured) says the FY16 result largely reflects the provisions made in the first half.

"The impact of this change to provisioning has flowed through to the full year," she said.

The company has since implemented a more rigorous provisioning policy to prevent a repeat of the first-half announcement, which saw the company's shares slump more than 75 per cent in January.

The shares later stabilised to hover around $1.30 for most of the year, but today they slipped more than 8 per cent following the profit announcement.
Shine has not issued profit guidance for the current financial year.

The company is paying a final dividend of 2.5c a share after failing to pay an interim dividend. This compares with a 3.75c payout in FY15.

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