27th Nov 2013 08:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Compass Group PLC Wednesday reported higher revenues but a drop in profits for the year ended September 30, as it booked exceptional charges of GBP436 million during the period.
The food and support services company reported a fall in its pretax profit to GBP721 million, down from GBP789 million a year earlier, due to GBP436 million in exceptional items.
Last year the group said that its took GBP295 million in exceptional costs to improve the operational efficiency of its labour base in Europe.
Compass said that it booked an additional GBP59 million in exceptional cost during the year associated with this, as well as a goodwill impairment of GBP377 million.
However, the group said that excluding exceptional costs and other non-underlying items, its pretax profit rose 9.2% to GBP1.2 billion.
It reported a net profit of GBP429 million for the year, compared with GBP605 million a year earlier.
The company said that revenue for the year rose 4.3% driven by a strong performance in North America and fast growing emerging markets, while the market in Europe and Japan remains challenging. It said that its revenue increased to GBP17.6 billion, up from GBP16.9 billion a year earlier.
"High levels of new contract wins in North America and Fast Growing & Emerging have driven good organic revenue growth of over 4% and our operating margin has increased by 20 basis points to over 7% for the first time," said Chief Executive Officer Richard Cousins in a statement.
Cousins said that the group remains confident in the business outlook and structural growth opportunities going forward.
Compass increased its full year dividend by almost 13% to 24.0 pence per share, and announced a further share buyback of GBP500 million for 2014, with the hope of achieving GBP1.4 billion in capital returns in three years.
Shares in the company were trading 1.6% higher Wednesday morning, at 941.50 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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