10th Nov 2015 08:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Distribution and logistics company DCC PLC on Tuesday said its revenue dipped in the first half but said pretax profit increased thanks to an improvement in its gross margin.
FTSE 250-listed DCC said its pretax profit for the half to the end of September was GBP52.5 million, up from GBP42.6 million a year earlier. Revenue fell to GBP5.07 billion from GBP5.43 billion a year earlier, but the group's cost of sales decreased to GBP4.64 billion from GBP5.05 billion, offsetting the fall in revenue.
DCC said it will pay an interim dividend of 33.04 pence per share, up 15% year-on-year.
Revenue was hit by the fall in oil prices hitting its DCC Energy fuel distribution business, while revenue excluding the DCC Energy business rose 4.3%.
DCC said it expects its operating profit and earnings will be "very significantly" ahead year-on-year for the full year to the end of March 2016 and "modestly" ahead of market expectations assuming normal winter weather conditions prevail for the remainder of the financial year.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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