28th Apr 2016 07:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - Pendragon PLC Thursday said its full year results are still expected to meet expectations after reporting a rise in profits across all of its three key divisions during the first quarter of 2016.
The UK automotive online retailer said its underlying pretax profit, which excludes certain items in order to measure the underlying performance of the business, was 8.7% higher in the first quarter of 2016 than a year earlier.
"Our first quarter underlying profit before tax increased by 8.7% which is testament to our continued delivery of our strategy," said Chief Executive Trevor Finn.
"We are expecting to see growth in profitability across aftersales, used and new for the full year as we continue to benefit from favourable market conditions and further implement our winning retail initiatives. We are expecting the Group to perform in line with expectations for the full year," he added.
Pendragon's like-for-like gross profit in the first quarter increased across all of the aftersales, used and new sectors, which are all of the company's main divisions.
Aftersales, which is the largest contributor to profit, saw gross profit come in 1.2% higher year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016 whilst the used vehicle division saw its gross profit rise 4.2% from the previous year. The new vehicle division experienced the largest rise in gross profit after coming in over 15% higher than last year.
Adding to the positive results, Pendragon said the amount of visits to Stratstone.com and Evanshalshaw.com rose by around 19% during the first quarter of 2016 compared to a year earlier.
Pendragon said its financial position remains strong and its debt:underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ratio remains "significantly below" the company;s target range - prompting Pendragon to assess how to "best use" its funds.
Pendragon shares were trading up 1.1% to 34.50 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
PDG.L