17th May 2016 06:47
LONDON (Alliance News) - DCC PLC on Tuesday said it expects to delver another year of profitable growth ahead as it reported a 47% rise in profit in its last financial year, beating market expectations and prompting a large increase in its full-year dividend.
The sales, marketing, distribution and business support company said its adjusted earnings per share rose by over 27% to 257.1 pence in the year to the end of March from 202.2p in the previous year. This easily beat analysts expectations of 251.0p.
Operating profit in the year rose by 36% to GBP300.5 million from GBP221.7 million, also ahead of analyst expectations of GB296.0 million.
DCC's pretax profit in the year was up 47% to GBP216.3 million from GBP147.1 million, whilst profit before tax, amortisation and exceptional items rose 41% to GBP272.0 million from GBP193.2 million.
Revenue in the year, however, remained flat at GBP10.60 billion in the year.
Three of DCC's four units reported material rises in operating profit in the year, with DCC Technology the only segment to suffer a fall in earnings as operating profit declined 29% to GBP35.1 million from GBP49.3 million.
DCC Energy operating profit rose 72% to GBP205.2 million from GBP119.4 million, whilst DCC Healthcare reported a 14% lift in profit to GBP45.0 million from GBP39.7 million. DCC Environmental posted an operating profit of GBP15.2 million, up 14% from GBP13.3 million in the previous year.
As a result of the positive results, DCC increased its dividend for the year by 15% to 97.22 pence per share from 84.54p.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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