22nd Mar 2016 07:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Wolseley PLC Tuesday said pretax profit more than tripled in the first half of its financial year on the back of strong commercial and residential markets for its US business, as it said it expects full-year results in line with analyst expectations.
The FTSE 100 building materials company reported a pretax profit of GBP367.0 million in the six months to January 31, up from GBP103.0 million a year earlier. A strong performance by Wolseley's US business produced operating profit of GBP330.0 million in the recent period, up from GBP308.0 million a year before.
The group also booked a much smaller impairment charge than a year earlier, when profit was hit by a GBP245.0 million impairment in the Nordics.
Wolseley said the strong performance in the US offset a challenging repair, maintenance and improvement market in the UK, as well as price deflation in the UK, US and Central Europe.
Revenue was at GBP6.80 billion, up from GBP6.42 billion a year earlier.
Wolseley raised its interim dividend by 10% to 33.28 pence per share from 30.25p.
The company said it completed the sale of its French building materials company on March 7.
"Market conditions remain mixed across the group, and we will therefore continue to invest in profitable growth where conditions are favourable and take actions to reduce our cost base and protect our profitability in weaker markets. After a low point in November, like-for-like revenue growth over the subsequent three month period to February 29 improved to 3.2% for the group and 5.7% in the USA," said Wolseley Chief Executive Ian Meakins.
"At current exchange rates, we expect group trading profit for the ongoing businesses for the full year to be in line with the current consensus of analyst expectations," Meakins added.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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