3rd Oct 2024 13:04
(Alliance News) - Galliford Try Holdings PLC on Thursday hiked its dividend by nearly 50% and announced a share buyback worth up to GBP10 million, as it reported that annual profit more than tripled.
The Uxbridge, England-based construction said pretax profit increased to GBP30.9 million in the financial year that ended June 30 from GBP10.1 million the year before, as revenue grew by 27% to GBP1.77 billion from GBP1.39 billion.
Before exceptional items, pretax profit was GBP32.7 million, up a still-impressive 40% from GBP23.4 million.
Galiford had been scheduled to release its results on September 19 but was forced to delay them to Thursday to give its more auditor more time. Galliford has a new chief financial officer. Kris Hampson joined from Rentokil Initial PLC at the start of September to replace Andrew Duxbury.
"Galliford Try has delivered another year of sequential, robust revenue and margin growth," said Chief Executive Bill Hocking. "Our strong progress, well ahead of plan, provided us with the confidence to reset our ambitions over the mid-term."
The results prompted Galliford to declare a 11.5 pence final dividend, up 53% from 7.5p a year before. This increased the full-year cash payout by 48% to 15.5p. The company also on Thursday started a share buyback worth up to GBP10 million, to be run by broker Peel Hunt LLP. It is Galliford's second buyback in recent years. It completed a GBP15 million programme in November last year.
Looking ahead, Galliford said it is "confident", thanks to an order book worth GBP3.8 billion, up from GBP3.7 billion a year before. This means that 92% of financial 2025 revenue is already secured.
Galliford Try shares were up 6.7% at 320.00p on Thursday afternoon in London.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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