Kingfisher pre-tax profits down 11%

Kingfisher reports full year adjusted pre-tax profits down 11% to £715 million. 'Creating the Leader' self-help programme on track, full year dividend up 7%.

Group sales down 2.4% to £10,573m; LFL change -2.9%
Group retail profit down 11.4% to £781m

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Highlights:
Results significantly impacted by:
- Weaker consumer confidence resulting in declining LFL markets in our three key territories
- £39 million adverse foreign exchange movements when translating euro and zloty overseas profits into sterling for reporting purposes
- Around £25 million less profit from record wet weather in the UK, significantly impacting footfall and sales of seasonal product (down 9%)
- 'Creating the Leader' programme well underway, on-going self-help initiatives helped limit the overall profit decline
- Strong free cash flow generation, ending the year with £38 million net cash
- Positive Economic Profit (KEP) despite the tough year
- Full year dividend up 7%, dividend cover reduced to 2.4 times in line with new policy to target dividend cover of around 2.5 times

Ian Cheshire, Group Chief Executive, said:

"We have had a tough year, impacted by unfavourable foreign exchange, record adverse weather in the UK and declining underlying markets in each of our three key territories. Whilst we have been unable to fully offset these headwinds, the hard work of our teams and our firm focus on our established programme of self-help initiatives means we ended the year in good shape with net cash on the balance sheet, higher market share and having generated economic return for our shareholders.

"During the course of the year, we have developed our wider management team, mostly through internal promotions, and we have made excellent progress with the first year of our self-help plan, 'Creating the Leader', a plan supporting both the short term whilst building the business for the longer term.

"Looking ahead, although we expect market conditions to remain challenging, we will continue to actively manage the business, optimising the generation and use of cash and driving longer term success through our own actions. I remain very confident in our prospects, with clear initiatives underway to make it easier for our customers to have better and more sustainable homes."

Source : Kingfisher PLC
www.kingfisher.co.uk