26th Jul 2018 12:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - Luxury furnishings firm Colefax Group PLC boosted its dividend Thursday after full-year revenue and profit both grew amid continued positive performance from its US business.
For the year ended April, pretax profit widened 62% to GBP4.7 million from GBP2.9 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 7.0% to GBP86.1 million from GBP80.5 million the year before.
"The group has made good progress over the last twelve months despite generally difficult trading conditions in most of our major markets," Colefax Chief Executive Officer David Green said. "Our largest market, the US, is showing signs of continued growth and this should underpin our performance in the current year. In addition we no longer have any hedging contracts put in place prior to the Brexit referendum and will benefit from the current weakness of sterling."
Colefax proposed a 2.6 pence per share final dividend, up 4.0% from 2.5p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 4.2% to 5.0p from 4.8p the year before.
"In our other major markets, the UK and Europe, we are experiencing increasingly difficult trading conditions and we expect this to offset some of the anticipated growth in the US," Green added. "In addition we expect our Decorating Division to return to a more normal level of activity following an exceptional performance last year."
"The group has a strong balance sheet and we will continue to invest with confidence in our portfolio of luxury brands and our worldwide distribution network," Green said.
Shares in Colefax were 3.9% higher at 540.00 pence on Thursday.
Related Shares:
Colefax Grp.