Aggreko continues to power ahead ‘by sticking to long-term strategy’

He said the focus for the years ahead would be to “keep bashing on” as the company revealed that underlying trading profits for the year would be ahead of expectations.

“I believe there is real merit in consistency of performance,” he said. “When I joined in 2003 we had a new strategy and we have been singing the same song ever since.

“Once you have a good strategy you should stick to it. If you read our annual reports from 2004 to today you would see little has changed.”

A lack of major global sporting tournaments this year impacted on the headline trading profit which fell 3 per cent to £127 million. But there was a 17 per cent rise in half-year underlying profits excluding sporting events which gave a lift to last year’s figures and made comparison with this year more difficult. The company earned £50m in the first half of last year from powering one off sporting events such as last year’s World Cup in South Africa.

Soames joked that the company “did less well in odd numbered years” and expected to benefit from next year’s sporting bonanza which will feature a number of high-profile events, notably the London Olympics for which Aggreko was awarded a £30m contract. “It is an opportunity to showcase our business as we are normally playing on foreign fields,” he said.

It also benefited from natural disasters where its temporary power units provided emergency aid. It supplied 200 megawatts to Japan after the earthquake and tsunami and other units to quake-hit Christchurch, New Zealand and to flood-stricken Brisbane, Australia.

In June investors reacted nervously to the emergence of a rival when Horizon, the investment vehicle run by Punch Taverns founder Hugh Osmond, bought APR – the world’s second-largest temporary power supplier – for £527m, equipping it with £168m to grow its fleet of generators.

However, it remains substantially smaller than Aggreko and Soames said yesterday that he was confident that he could cope with any threat. “We have been competing with these guys for seven or eight years. Instead of being private we will be competing with them as a stock market company, that is all.”

Revenue for the half year was up 9 per cent at £637m while full-year underlying profit is now expected to come in at about £315m, up 24 per cent, higher than indicated in a trading update in June.

The company declared an interim dividend of 7.2p, up 10 per cent from 6.55p, to be paid on 19 October. Shares closed up 2p at 1,765p.