Compass posts rise in H1 revenue, announces £1bn special dividend

Catering company Compass reported a rise in first-half revenue as it benefited from a weaker pound, and announced a £1bn special dividend.

In its results for the six months to the end of March, the group said revenue rose 20.3% to £11.5bn, with operating profit up 24.6% to £877m and earnings per share of 37.5p, up from 30.4p in the first half of last year. The company said all three benefited by more than 15% from the translational effect of a weaker pound.

Compass declared an interim dividend of 11.2p a share, up 5.7% from the year before and proposed a special dividend of £1bn, which it attributed to continued strong cash flow generation. The dividend is expected to be paid in July.

Chief executive Richard Cousins said: "Compass had a good six months, with the business performing as expected. North America continues to deliver excellent growth and trends in Europe are improving. In Rest of World, reasonable growth in Business & Industry, Healthcare and Education was offset by ongoing weakness in Brazil and our Offshore & Remote sector.

"We continue to drive operating efficiencies around the business which, combined with the end of the restructuring in our Offshore and Remote business, resulted in margin improvement of 20bps in the period."

The group said expectations for full-year 2017 are unchanged, with growth weighted to the second half.