2017 financial performance
• Adjusted operating profit down 17% to £1,252m, reflecting significantly reduced profit in Centrica Business.
• Adjusted earnings down 22% to £698m. Higher net finance cost and lower Group adjusted tax rate of 22%.
• Adjusted EPS down 25% to 12.6p.
• £476m post-tax net exceptional charge, predominantly relating to impairments of E&P assets and Rough; shareholder statutory profit of £333m after accounting for re-measurements of open commodity positions.
• EBITDA down 9%. Adjusted operating cash flow (AOCF) down 23% reflecting lower EBITDA and one-off UK Business working capital inflow in 2016. Underlying AOCF down 13.0% vs 2016 and CAGR of (0.7%) since 2015.
• Group net debt down £877m to £2.6bn, at lower end of £2.5bn-£3bn end 2017 targeted range.
• Proposed full year dividend of 12.0p.
And later;
GROUP EARNINGS AND DIVIDEND
Profit for the year from business performance decreased to £710m (2016: £885m) and after adjusting for non-controlling interests, adjusted earnings fell by 22% to £698m (2016: £895m). This reflects the lower adjusted operating profit and higher net finance cost, partly offset by the lower tax charge, all as described above. Adjusted basic EPS was 12.6p (2016: 16.8p) reflecting the lower earnings and a higher number of shares in issue due to the effects of a 7% equity placing in May 2016 and the scrip dividend.
The statutory profit attributable to shareholders for the year was £333m (2016: £1,672m). The reconciling items between Group profit for the period from business performance and statutory profit are related to exceptional items and certain re-measurements. The difference compared to 2016 is principally due to a post-tax exceptional charge of £476m (2016: credit of £27m) and a lower net gain from certain re-measurements of £69m (2016: £750m). The Group reported a statutory basic EPS of 6.0p (2016: 31.4p).
In addition to the interim dividend of 3.6p per share, the proposed final dividend is 8.4p, giving a total full year dividend of 12.0p (2016: 12.0p).
https://www.investegate.co.uk/centrica- ... 0000Z1815/