14th Jun 2016 06:13
LONDON (Alliance News) - Specialist equipment rental company Ashtead Group PLC on Tuesday said it will return GBP200.0 million to shareholders via a share buyback in the current financial year as it reported surging profit and revenue and a higher dividend for the year just ended.
The FTSE 100-listed company said pretax profit for the financial year to April 30 was GBP616.7 million, up 24% from the GBP473.8 million made a year earlier ,as Ashtead benefited from a rise in revenue to GBP2.55 billion from GBP2.04 billion.
Revenue was driven higher by the beneficial impact of the stronger dollar, given Ashtead's significant exposure to the US market through its Sunbelt division, and by robust markets throughout the year.
On the back of the strong results, Ashtead said it will start a GBP200.0 million share buyback in the 2017 financial year. This comes in addition to a final dividend of 18.5 pence, which means its total dividend payout for the year rises 48% to 22.5p from 15.25p the year before.
"We continue to deliver on our well-established strategy of organic growth, supplemented by bolt-on acquisitions. We have broadened both our geographic footprint and the markets we serve and the benefits of this diversification are evident, both in our financial performance and our market share gains," said Chief Executive Geoff Drabble.
"We have seen a good seasonal upward trend in fleet on rent throughout the spring which has continued into the new financial year. Our end markets remain strong, the structural drivers are still in place and we have a strong balance sheet which allows us to execute our plans responsibly. As a consequence, the board continues to look to the medium term with confidence," he added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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