Redde Northgate announces a final dividend of 15.0p, bringing total dividend to 21.0p (FY2021: 15.4p)
Other financial highlights:
Group revenue including vehicle sales grew 12%, reflecting strong customer demand, recovery post-COVID in business volumes and traffic activity, and lower de-fleeting disposal activity
Underlying revenue (excluding vehicle sales) grew 24%, due to increased customer activity across all business units supporting both volume growth and price improvements, plus new customer wins
EBIT rose 80% through higher revenues and margin improvement, helped by underlying strength in rental margins, post-COVID-19 activity recovery, realisation of merger synergies and leaner cost base
Underlying PBT up 62% to £151.3m supported by margin growth and disposal profits
Steady state cash generation improved 54% to £216.4m; free cashflow lower, with an inflow of £12.3m (FY2021: £97.8m) due to incremental fleet investment to meet demand
ROCE increased 4.4ppt to 13.9% due to higher profitability in the Group, strong disposal values and a leaner cost base
Refinancing in Nov 2021: £792m of largely fixed-rate funding facilities and reduced cost of borrowing
Group net debt, excluding IFRS 16 leases, increased to £452.1m; 1.4x net debt to EBITDA (FY2021: 1.5x) well within target leverage range of 1.0x to 2.0x
£30m share buyback programme underway since March, £20.6m purchased by 30 June 2022
