17th Feb 2015 11:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - Pendragon PLC posted a jump in 2014 pretax profit on Tuesday and doubled its dividend on the back of a rise in revenue across its motor division in the year.
The car dealership said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December rose to GBP64.6 million, nearly double the GBP38.9 million reported a year earlier. Revenue for the year was up to GBP4 billion from GBP3.85 billion last year, boosted by a GBP8.1% rise in used-car revenue, a 4.3% rise in new car revenue and a 3.6% rise in after-sales revenue.
The strong performance pushed the group to double its proposed final dividend to 0.6 pence per share, bringing its total dividend for the year up to 0.9 pence per share.
"We are confident that 2015 will be another year of good performance, with group performance in line with current expectations for the year," said Pendragon Chief Executive Trevor Finn.
The group splits its operations into motor and support. The motor segment covers the Stratstone and Evans Halshaw retail franchises, the Quicks used-car business and the California premium cars unit. The support business includes the Leasing car-leasing business, the Quickco car-parts wholesale business and its Pinewood software arm.
In the motor segment, revenue ticked higher across all divisions. Both Stratstone and Evans Halshaw reported an improvement in used-car sales revenue, while Stratstone also got a boost in its new car division from sales growth for Aston Martin, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche cars. Quicks posted a flat performance year-on-year but California showed some weakness, with gross profit slightly lower, as Aftersales and Used offset an improvement in its New division.
The performance in its much smaller support business improved slightly over the year, up to GBP85.4 million from GBP80.6 million on a good performance in the Leasing arm. Both Pinewood and Quickco posted broadly flat revenue performances year-on-year.
The company said it is continuing to invest in its digital business and saw visits to the Stratstone, Evans Halshaw and Quicks websites rise 16% year-on-year. It is now fully operational with the Sell Your Car scheme, whereby consumers can sell their car directly to Evans Halshaw and the company guarantees to pay more than rival WeBuyAnyCar.com. The Sell Your Car service has been rolled out to 42 retail locations in the UK.
This month, the company launched its Move Me Closer scheme, a click-and-collect programme that allow consumers to reserve a vehicle via a mobile device and have it physically delivered to their nearest franchise location.
Shares in Pendragon were up 1.3% to 39.00 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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