14th Mar 2018 08:05
LONDON (Alliance News) - WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC on Wednesday declared a special return to shareholders for its recently ended financial year, as the company recorded stronger like-for-like sales growth than the year before.
Morrisons is proposing a special dividend to shareholders of 4.00 pence per share on top of a final dividend of 4.43p. Without the special dividend, the total for the year to February 4 is 6.09p compared to 5.43p, but including it the return is up 86% year-on-year to 10.09p.
This special return, the company said, reflects progress made so far and expectations for continued growth.
On a reported basis, pretax profit increased 17% year-on-year to GBP380.0 million, and underlying pretax profit rose 11% to GBP374.0 million. The results have an extra week on the previous year, and the underlying figure on a 52-week basis was up 9.5%.
Revenue climbed 5.8% to GBP17.26 billion from the GBP16.32 billion recorded the year before. On a like-for-like basis, group sales excluding fuel rose 2.8%, compared to 1.9% growth a year earlier.
Excluding fuel, revenue was up 4.4% to GBP13.5 billion, and overall fuel sales rose 11% to GBP3.7 billion.
Morrisons has reduced its net debt by GBP221.0 million to GBP973.0 million, which better than its target of GBP1.00 billion by the end of the period.
The grocer said it was a strong financial year, despite headwinds such as the higher cost of imported goods and other costs. Core supermarkets are growing year-on-year, and the company has now posted its third consecutive year of growth, it noted.
Looking ahead, Morrisons is on track for annualised wholesale supply sales to breach the GBP700.0 million park by the end of 2018, and to reach GBP1.00 billion "in due course".
It has now achieved GBP42.0 million of incremental profit from wholesale, services, interest, and online, and Morrisons remains on target to achieve GBP75.0 million to GBP125.0 million "in the medium-term".
Chief Executive David Potts said: "We had a strong year, becoming more competitive and increasingly differentiating Morrisons for all stakeholders.
"We are pleased to be paying shareholders a special dividend of 4p a share, which reflects our good performance so far and confidence for the future."
Shares were up 1.4% at the start of trading in London on Wednesday at 229.50p.
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