Inchcape's 2015 profit and revenue edge up

Automotive distributor and retailer Inchcape reported a small rise in full year pre-tax profit as revenue edged higher amid strong UK sales.

In the year to the end of December, reported pre-tax profit rose to £262.6m from £255.8m in 2014 as revenue nudged up to £6.8bn from £6.7bn.

Inchcape highlighted strong top line growth in Australia, the UK, and North and South Asia, which it said offset softer market conditions in Europe and Russia.

In the UK, which is Inchcape’s biggest market, sales were up 10.2% to £2.73bn.

Despite Russia delivering a trading performance in line with its expectations, the further weakening in the macroeconomic outlook meant the company included a £49.5m non-cash exceptional impairment to write off the full value of goodwill in its business there.

Inchcape declared a final dividend of 14.1p per share, up from 13.8p and taking the total dividend to 20.9p, which was 4% higher than the previous year.

Group chief executive officer Stefan Bomhard said: “Inchcape's track record of performance continued in 2015; our robust profit growth was underpinned by our strong positions in a global portfolio of markets, trading across a diversified set of five revenue streams as a Distributor and Retailer for our world-leading OEM partners.

“The global economy faces greater uncertainty looking forward, but Inchcape is well positioned - with supportive drivers at the local level across our diversified portfolio of markets and revenue streams. We expect to deliver a solid constant currency performance in 2016."

At 0830 GMT, Inchcape shares were up 1.8% to 723p.