Overall revenue reduced 0.4% to £963m. However, revenue in Roadside Assistance rose 1.8% to £724m, while, as expected, income from Insurance Services, Driving Services and Ireland declined.
Group Trading EBITDA reduced 3.3% to £415m in line with expectations. We increased Roadside EBITDA by 0.8% to £361m and cut overall costs by £8m but this was offset by lower contributions from Insurance Services and Ireland (due to adverse foreign exchange movements), new IT operating costs, a full year of PLC costs, and investment in marketing and diagnostic technology. The EBITDA margin was therefore also slightly lower than last year at 43.1%.
Profit after tax was £6m (2015: £69m) after a net cost of £85m relating to the refinancing.
Adjusted basic EPSwere 23.2p (2015: 23.3p) with the total dividend covered 2.6 times.
Cash conversion was strong at 101% before tax and exceptional items. Net cash flow was £90m before dividends, one-off refinancing costs and the purchase of our own shares for an employee incentive programme. This was achieved despite the abnormally high level of capital expenditure relating to the transformation. The refinancing, completed on 31 July 2015, resulted in a reduction of annual cash interest costs of £45m, a decline in the net debt to EBITDA ratio from 6.9x to 6.8x and facilitated our ability to pay dividends.
The Board has recommended total dividends in respect of the 2016 financial year of 9p per share including the interim dividend of 3.5p already paid.
