Genuit Group Plc announce a final dividend of 8.4 pence (2023: 8.3 pence) per share is being recommended for payment on 4 June 2025 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 2 May 2025, in line with the Group's progressive dividend policy. The ex-dividend date will be 1 May 2025. The full year dividend of 12.5p is marginally higher than the prior year 12.4p per share, reflecting the strength of the balance sheet and the Board's confidence in the Group's medium-term strategy.
Other financial highlights include:
Full year revenue of £561.3m decreased 4.3% year-on-year. Second half revenue increased 0.5% on a like for like basis, following a 10.6% decline in the first half, reflecting a stabilisation of market conditions.
Full year underlying operating margin increased by 40 bps to 16.4%, driven by productivity gains through the Genuit Business System (GBS) and purchasing savings, reflecting continued progress towards the medium-term operating margin target of over 20%.
Second half underlying operating margin was 80bps ahead of first half and 10bps ahead of H2 2023, driving an 11% increase in underlying operating profit versus the first half.
Reported operating profit of £59.2m (2023: £62.0m) decreased 4.5% year-on-year.
Focus on working capital improvement delivered strong underlying operating cash generation of £91.6m, representing 99.3% cash conversion on a post-capex basis and 107.6% cash conversion on a pre-capex basis.
Net debt reduced to 0.9 times underlying pro-forma EBITDA at the year-end (2023: 1.1 times), with de-leveraging resulting predominantly from the strong operating cash generation.
Underlying EPS decreased to 24.6p, due to lower reported operating profit and the annualisation of the higher UK tax rate.
