4th Mar 2015 08:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dignity PLC on Wednesday said it swung to a pretax loss in 2014 due to costs related to its refinancing during the year, though profit increased excluding those costs on the back of higher revenue and the company raised its final dividend by 10%.
The FTSE 250-listed funeral services company said its pretax loss for the year was GBP67.7 million, attributable entirely to a GBP154.8 million financing cost related to refinancing its debt, which allowed it to return GBP64.4 million to shareholders.
Stripping out the financing costs, pretax profit for the year increased 11% to GBP58.5 million from GBP52.9 million in 2013, as revenue increased to GBP268.9 million from GBP256.7 million.
Dignity said its operating performance was strong across the business in 2014 and added 2015 has started well, reiterating its positive expectations for the full year.
The company has proposed a final dividend of 11.83 pence per share, bringing its total dividend for 2014 to 18.32 pence.
"The group has continued to perform strongly, delivering operational performance ahead of consensus estimates. This performance was underpinned by our ongoing commitment to outstanding customer service, further investment in our business and continued tight cost control," said Mike McCollum, Chief Executive of Dignity.
Dignity shares opened down 0.6% on Wednesday at 1,910.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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