Financial highlights
Revenues up 4.8% to £169.2m (H1 FY16: £161.4m)
o Card Factory like-for-like ("LFL") sales +0.2% (H1 FY16: +2.8%)
On an underlying basis:
o EBITDA growth of 5.1% to £34.2m (H1 FY16: £32.5m)
o Operating profit growth of 4.1% to £29.0m (H1 FY16: £27.8m)
o Profit before tax growth of 7.3% to £27.6m (H1 FY16: £25.7m)
o Basic EPS increased by 7.1% to 6.45 pence (H1 FY16: 6.02 pence)
o Leverage of 1.26 times underlying EBITDA for the 12 months ended 31 July 2016
Reported profit before tax growth of 12.5% to £27.0m (H1 FY16: £24.0m)
Interim dividend increased by 12.0% to 2.8 pence per share (FY16: 2.5 pence)
Special dividend of 15 pence per share (FY16: 15 pence), a return of £51.1m to shareholders
A total of £163.8m returned to shareholders via dividends since IPO just over two years ago
