The Future PLC Board is recommending a final dividend of 1.6p per share for the year ended 30 September 2020, payable on 16 February 2021 to all shareholders on the register at close of business on 15 January 2021.
Other financial highlights include:
Group revenue up 53% to £339.6m, driven by a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, underpinned by continued online audience growth (+56%) to 281.8m (48% organic growth)
Group organic revenue growth of 6% (H1: 11%; H2: 1%) as our diversified strategy offset any impact of COVID-19:
Strong organic Media revenue growth of 23%; eCommerce growth of 58% and digital advertising growth of 15% offset the impact of event cancellations, which declined organically by 43%
Magazines division (21% of Group organic revenue in FY2020) more impacted with organic revenue decline of 29% (H1: (12)%; H2: (45)%)
Adjusted operating profit up 79% to £93.4m, with adjusted diluted EPS up 57% to 74.7p (2019: 47.5p)
Adjusted free cash flow of £96.0m (2019: £53.7m), representing 103% of adjusted operating profit (2019: 103%):
Continued cash generation enabled rapid deleveraging to finish the year with net debt of £62.1m (2019: £40.3m) (down from around £93m in April 2020 on completion of the acquisition of TI Media), representing 0.6x leverage and headroom of over £100m on committed facilities.
