Hollywood Bowl to reinstate dividends following 'excellent' H1

Ten-pin bowling lanes operator Hollywood Bowl said on Friday that it intends to reinstate dividend payments after delivering an "excellent" first-half performance, with strong growth in both revenues and cash generation.

Hollywood Bowl stated first-half revenues were up 659.4% year-on-year to a record £91.3m, driven by the ongoing demand for "high-quality and affordable" experiential leisure, while trading in February and March also continued to be strong.

The London-listed firm, which now anticipates that its full-year performance will be ahead of current market expectations, noted that record cash generation from operations had also further strengthened its overall position, with Hollywood Bowl stating it had net cash of £49.6m as of 31 March.

As a result of its "strong, sustained financial performance and significant cash generation" since reopening, Hollywood Bowl said it now intends to reinstate a dividend, with a further update on this set to be given at the time of its results for the six month period in late May.

Chief executive Stephen Burns said: "We have had an excellent start to the financial year, as a return to more normal operating conditions combined with strong demand and our customer-focused strategy, led to impressive sales growth and profits. We have continued to invest in our customer experience and in the growth and quality of our portfolio of bowling and mini-golf centres."

Analysts at Shore Capital stood by their 'buy' rating on the stock following the "strong" trading update, pointing out that like-for-like revenue was ahead by 27% in the period.

"Given the strength of trading in the first half, management 'anticipates that the full-year performance will be ahead of current market expectations', with the dividend to be reinstated for H1. We continue to see a fair value above 300.0p per share," said Shore Cap.

As of 0920 BST, Hollywood Bowl shares were up 7.51% at 280.59p.