3rd Feb 2014 09:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - RM PLC announced a special dividend of 16.00 pence per share Monday as it saw pretax profit rise despite a decline in revenue in the year ended November 30, 2013.
The education products and services company posted revenue of GBP261.8 million in the year, down from GBP288.7 million in the previous year.
RM said the decline in revenue was partly caused by the Building Schools for the Future programme coming to close. Revenue in its Education Technology division dropped 11% to GBP181.2 million from GBP202.7 million, due to funding pressure in the UK education sector.
However, this decline in revenue was partly offset by improved operating margins, lower sales costs and operating expenses.
Pretax profit was GBP9.4 million, up from GBP7.4 million in the previous year. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose to GBP16.4 million, up from GBP12.7 million. RM's adjusted figures exclude amortisation, gains or losses on the sale of operations, impairment of goodwill, restructuring costs, share-based payment charges, property related provisions and other non-operational items.
RM saw exceptional costs of GBP5.1 million in restructuring costs following its strategic review of its Education Technology division, and an increase in property-related provisions of GBP2.6 million, related to provisions for onerous leases on surplus property.
The company stopped selling personal computing devices in its Education Technology division as of December 2013. RM said that hardware sales had been declining over many years, and now its strategy for the division is to develop and distribute its software products and services instead.
RM warned that the run-down of activity as it exits this market will cause an estimated 50% reduction in revenue for the Education Technology division between 2013 and 2015.
RM said that its business had been affected by an increasing trend towards bring-you-own-device policies in schools, which could provide it an opportunity to provide services and network infrastructure to schools.
"The repositioning of our Education Technology division towards software and services is on track," said Chief Executive David Brooks in a statement. "Looking forward, these changes will have an impact in 2014, but will provide us with a more robust business in 2015 and beyond."
The company announced a final dividend of 2.46 pence, bringing its full year dividend to 3.30 pence, up from 3.00 pence in the previous year. The company said it has greater cash resources than it required, and thus proposed in additiona a special dividend of 16.00 pence per share.
Shares in RM were trading up 8.8% at 125.00 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Rm