The markets were unimpressed by C E Heath Plc’s figures or its declared confidence for the future, as it reported pre-tax profits profits up 397% to ú19.1m, but this is compared with a year including ú26.5m in exceptional charges. Turnover for the insurance and reinsurance broker, which also owns Peterborough Software and Datasure slipped 2% to ú171.9m. Chairman Michael Kier said he was confident about the future of the London insurance market, despite the adverse and largely unfounded publicity regarding Lloyd’s of London, as he put it. The computer services division was again the star performer, with pre-tax profits up 20% at ú6.4m from turnover that rose 15% to ú51.0m. Payroll and personnel software company Peterborough is the largest component in the division, consistently growing profits and turnover over the past five years. Pre-tax profits at Peterborough rose 9% to ú4.7m from turnover up 4% at ú30.7m. Tellingly, revenues from its IBM Corp mainframe business are exactly the same in 1995 as they were in 1991 – ú13.6m – while the open systems and personal computer businesses rose substantially in that period. Datasure turned in pre-tax profits up 90% to ú1.9 from turnover up 33% to ú26.0m. As the Lloyd’s market contracted, so did Datasure’s earnings. The company diversified as a consequence, and is now spread across broking, underwriting, payroll and personnel, among others. Peterborough and Datasure were placed under a holding company during the period, Heath Computer Services Ltd, which purhased a 60% stake in Saffron Computer Services in February for ú528,000 (CI No 2,595). Saffron develops housing management systems for local government and housing associations. Heath is planning to buy the balance by 1998 for a profits-related price. C E Heath plans to pay a final dividend of 11 pence, making an unchanged total for the year of 16 pence.
