Further to the announcement on 23 April 2020, and given the Group's financial position and robust trading performance, the Devro Board has resolved to declare the postponed 2019 final dividend of 6.3p per share which will be paid by way of an interim dividend on 2 October 2020 to shareholders on the register as at 21 August 2020. Taken together with the 2019 interim dividend, this results in a total dividend payment for FY 2019 of 9.0p per share (as compared to 9.0p per share for the previous year). In addition, the Board has resolved to declare a 2020 interim dividend of 2.7p, flat on the prior year. This further interim dividend will be paid on 15 January to shareholders on the register at 4 December 2020.
Other financial highlights:
Volumes of edible collagen casings up 1.4%, good underlying momentum adversely affected by Covid-19 in Q2
o First half Covid-19 impact estimated at (1.5%)
o Emerging market volume up 19% driven by our growth agenda in Latin America, Russia and South East Asia
o Mature markets volume down 6% impacted by European distributor destocking (as previously highlighted) and Covid-19 headwinds seen during May and June in North America, the UK & Ireland and Australia, particularly in food service
Group revenue marginally lower than prior year due to other products
Improved underlying operating profit of £18.5m (H1 2019: £17.8m) and operating margin increased to 15.5% (H1 2019: 14.9%) benefiting from cost savings
Underlying basic earnings per share up 7% to 7.5p (H1 2019: 7.0p)
Improved free cash flow generation of £7.2m (H1 2019: £4.3m)
Covenant net debt of £121.5m (H1 2019: £148.2m, FY 2019 £123.8m), representing net debt to EBITDA of 1.9x (H1 2019: 2.3x, FY 2019: 1.9x)
