2nd Aug 2016 07:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Car dealer Pendragon PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit declined in the first half due to one-off gains not recurring, but underlying profit increased as sales growth remained robust.
Reported pretax profit for the half to the end of June declined 32% to GBP41.8 million from GBP60.8 million a year earlier, entirely due to Pendragon having booked a GBP21.7 million one-off gain from asset sales in the prior year. Stripping this out, underlying pretax profit was GBP44.2 million, up from GBP40.3 million the year before.
The firm declared an interim dividend of 0.7 pence per share, up from 0.6p.
Revenue rose 1.5% year-on-year to GBP2.33 billion from GBP2.29 billion the year before, with strong performances across new and used car sales. Pendragon said used vehicles proved very strong in the first half, with like-for-like gross profit rising 6.2% year-on-year, while aftersales gross profit increased 1.6%.
Pendragon said new vehicle like-for-like profit rose 12% in the first half but said this growth is starting to show signs of easing.
Trevor Finn, Pendragon's chief executive, said the Brexit vote has caused some uncertainty, but Pendragon has not "experienced any noticeable change in our customers' behaviour" so far, while talks with franchise partners indicated no material effect on new vehicle pricing will emerge following the fall in the value of sterling.
Finn said Pendragon remains on track to meet its expectations for 2016.
Pendragon shares were up 5.3% to 32.72p early Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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