2nd Mar 2016 07:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Funeral services provider Dignity PLC on Wednesday swung to a pretax profit in 2015 due to financing costs not repeating, though its revenue and underlying results were robust without the one-off boost.
Pretax profit for the FTSE 250-listed company was GBP69.0 million, compared to a GBP67.7 million loss a year earlier when Dignity booked significant costs related to its refinancing. Underlying pretax profit, stripping out one-offs, rose to GBP72.2 million from GBP58.5 million.
Revenue increased to GBP305.3 million from GBP268.9 million, up 14%, as deaths in the UK rose 7.0% year-on-year to 588,000, the largest growth in the country's death rate for 60 years. Client satisfaction levels remained very strong, Dignity said, and the funeral homes acquired from Laurel Funerals in July have been successfully integrated.
Dignity said it expects the number of deaths in 2016 to revert to levels seen in 2014, following the exceptionally high number in 2015, but maintained its outlook for the full year.
Dignity will pay a final dividend of 14.31 pence, up from 13.01p, taking its total dividend up 10% year-on-year to 21.45p.
"Our staff have performed tremendously in a year when we had to look after a lot more families than originally anticipated. Our standards remained high, as reflected in the outstanding responses from our client surveys. Our financial performance was very strong as a result, helped by our continued focus on maintaining good cost controls alongside excellent client service and investment in the business," said Chief Executive Mike McCollum.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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