27th Mar 2020 10:34
(Alliance News) - Domino's Pizza Group PLC on Friday said it will suspend payment of its dividend as its performance outside of the UK and Ireland has been hurt by the new coronavirus outbreak.
The fast food pizza delivery chain said that in its core UK & Ireland business, trading in January, February and the first two weeks of March was in line with expectations.
UK like-for-like sales growth over this period was broadly similar to the run rate seen in the final quarter of 2019, at just over 3%, driven by order count.
Over the past week, UK trading has accelerated, Domino's highlighted, with the growth in delivery amid the country's lockdown more than offsetting the lack of collection sales. This like-for-like sales growth has been driven by an increase in items per order and therefore higher overall tickets.
Turning to international business, Domino's said it has seen significant disruption in Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, with double-digit declines in sales year-on-year and around 16 temporary store closures due to labour shortages and low demand.
Domino's Swedish business is less affected at present, the company noted, but said it continues to monitor the evolving situation in this market.
As at December 29, Domino's net debt was GBP232.6 million. The company has GBP350 million of committed facilities in place under its revolving credit facility and overdraft, providing headroom of GBP99.6 million above its net borrowings of GBP250.4 million. The facility runs to December 2023, the company explained, and since the year-end has been drawn in full to provide Domino's with liquidity if required.
Domino's said it decided to suspend the final dividend payment of 5.56 pence per share and delay convening the 2020 annual general meeting in light of the ongoing and evolving coronavirus crisis.
The FTSE 250 stock was trading 2.5% lower in London on Friday at 273.10p a share.
By Evelina Grecenko; [email protected]
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