3rd Mar 2016 07:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - Builders' merchant Travis Perkins PLC on Thursday posted lower pretax profit for 2015 despite a rise in revenue, driven by writedowns taken on two acquisitions due to weak market conditions.
The FTSE 100-listed group said pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP224.0 million, sinking 30% from the GBP321.0 million posted a year earlier.
Travis Perkins booked a GBP141.0 million non-cash impairment charge on its Plumbing Trade Supplies and F&P Wholesale businesses due to the challenging conditions in the UK repair, maintenance and improvement market that it had flagged in its third quarter trading update.
Revenue increased to GBP5.94 billion from GBP5.58 billion, but like-for-like revenue growth slowed to 3.8% from 7.3%, reflecting tough market conditions, particularly in Travis's plumbing and heating division. Like-for-like sales increased for its general merchanting, contracts and consumer divisions.
But the group said it has expanded its network, with a net 53 new branches and stores opened in the year and has made progress on its strategic investments in its general merchanting supply chain.
Travis will pay a final dividend of 29.25 pence per share, taking its total dividend up to 44.0p from 38.0p, a 16% year-on-year rise reflecting the group's confidence in its outlook.
"The group has delivered a good performance in 2015 despite the weaker than expected RMI market in the second half of the year," said Chief Executive John Carter.
"We believe that the growth drivers in our markets remain strong and welcome the return to growth of mortgage approvals and secondary housing transactions in the second half of 2015. This has supported good growth in RMI sales for the group in January and February 2016," Carter added.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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