22nd May 2015 06:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Severn Trent PLC Friday said its pretax profit more than halved in the last financial year due to losses on financial instruments, but underlying earnings and revenue rose, leading to the company increasing its dividend as expected.
The FTSE 100-listed UK water company said its pretax profit for the year ended March 31 more than halved to GBP148.2 million from GBP318.9 million a year earlier. However, excluding exceptional items and losses on financial instruments, profit rose to GBP300.4 million from GBP276.1 million as revenue climbed to GBP1.80 billion from GBP1.75 billion.
Basic earnings per share fell 72.6% to 49.9 pence from 182.1 pence but excluding exceptional items and losses on financial instruments, earnings rose to 107.2 pence from 92.5 pence.
Severn raised its dividend for the year by 5.6% to 84.90 pence per share from 80.40 pence, and the company reiterated plans to grow the dividend every year until 2020 in line with inflation.
Severn reported a GBP133.5 million loss on financial instruments in the year, swinging from a GBP58.0 million gain a year earlier, whilst exceptional items rose to GBP18.7 million from GBP15.2 million. Finance costs and finance income both experienced small falls.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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