Results round-up

Currency tailwinds boosted Wolseley´s full-year revenues as the plumbers´ merchant announced the result of the strategic review for its UK operations.

Total revenues for 2016 jumped 8.5% to reach £14.43bn or by 4.2% in constant currency terms. Sales growth in like-for-like terms came in at 2.4%. That drove a 43% rise in profits before tax to £727m.

Wolseley´s bottom-line was also helped by a sharp drop in impairments and exceptional items, from £264 to £96m.

Turnover at its e-commerce operations clocked in at £2.1bn.Net debt on the other hand rose 16.3% to £936m.

Zug, Switzerland-based Wolseley also unveiled its UK turnaround and repositioning strategy, including the closure of 80 branches and one distribution centre at a cost of up to 800 jobs and £100m in restructuring charges.

The cash element of those charges would be paid out of working capital efficiencies and proceeds from disposals, the company said in a statement.

"Our review of UK operational strategy has identified opportunities to transform our customer propositions whilst simplifying our branch network and supporting logistics facilities to greatly improve service levels, drive availability and choice for customers and generate better returns for shareholders. Regrettably this will result in job losses which we will handle sensitively and minimise through redeployment and attrition as far as possible," group chief John Martin said.

A strategic review of its Nordic operations was also underway.

Earnings per share before extraordinary items increased 7.6% to 247.7p.

Close Brothers posted its preliminary results for the year to 31 July on Tuesday, with adjusted operating profit up 4% to £233.6m, and adjusted basic earnings per share up 7% to 128.4p.

The FTSE 250 firm’s board proposed a dividend per share of 57p, a 7% increase on last year’s 53.5p.

Its return on opening equity was 18.9%, down from 19.5% in the 2015 financial year, with a loan book of £6.4bn at year-end, up 12% from £5.7bn a year prior.

Total client assets were down 8% however, to £9.9bn, with the company’s common equity tier 1 ratio at 13.5%, compared to 13.7%.

Close Brothers’ board said on a divisional basis, Winterflood's performance improved in the second half, resulting in a full-year operating profit of £19m.

Asset Management reportedly delivered £14m adjusted operating profit and positive net flows at 6% of opening managed assets.

“We are pleased to report a good performance for the 2016 financial year, with further growth in our earnings and dividend against a backdrop of more challenging market conditions,” said Close Brothers chief executive Preben Prebensen.

“We achieved good growth in all our lending businesses, while maintaining the strong returns and prudent underwriting criteria which underpin our long track record of profitability throughout the economic cycle."

Card Factory announced a special dividend on Tuesday as it reported a rise in revenue and profit for the six months to the end of July.

Pre-tax profit was up 7.3% from the first half of last year to £27.6m, on revenues of £169.2m, up 4.8%.

The company upped its interim dividend by 12% to 2.8p per share and declared a special dividend of 15p per share, giving a return of £51.1m to shareholders.

This brought the total returned to shareholders via dividends since the initial public offering just over two years ago to £163.8m.

Chief executive officer Karen Hubbard said: "We have delivered a solid set of interim results with further growth in both revenue and profit, albeit with softer footfall resulting in slightly lower than normal sales growth from our stores.

"Trading in recent weeks has been similar to the trends seen in the first half, with encouraging continued growth in average spend. We approach the important final quarter with confidence in the quality and value of our offer, including our new Christmas ranges, and remain confident of delivering full year underlying profit before tax within the range of expectations.”

The company said it saw strong growth in sales from the new Card Factory website, while overall like-for-like sales were up 0.2% versus a 2.8% increase in the previous first half.