Jardine Lloyd Thompson prelims

[Davidsb]

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Revenue growth of 9% to £1,261.3m
• Organic revenue growth of 2%
• 3% in JLT Specialty
• 4% in JLT Re
• 3% in International Employee Benefits
• Positive impact of foreign exchange movements
• Underlying* profit before tax of £172.6m, up 1%, reflecting US Specialty investment as planned **
• Underlying profit before tax, excluding the US investment, up 5% to £199.6m
• Reported profit before tax down 13% to £134.9m
• Underlying profit margin down 80 bps to 15.4%
• Underlying profit margin, excluding the US investment, down by 30 bps to 18.1%
• Reported diluted EPS down 21% from 48.0p*** to 37.8p
• Underlying diluted EPS down 2% from 52.2p*** to 51.4p
• Final cash dividend of 20.6p bringing total dividend for 2016 to 32.2p, up 5%, reflecting the Board's confidence in the Group's underlying trading performance

* Underlying results exclude exceptional items of £37.7m
** Net investment in US Specialty in 2016 was £27.0m (2015: £20.5m)
*** 2015 comparatives revised

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

• Successfully completed turnaround of UK Employee Benefits business, which is now set for a return to growth in revenues and profits; second half revenues of £85.1m exceeded those in the same period last year (H2 2015: £82.4m).
• Build-out of US Specialty continued, delivering US$56m of revenues and on track to deliver profits in 2019. The peak of the investment programme was reached in 2016. The recent acquisition of Construction Risk Partners completes JLT's global Construction capability.
• Disposed of non-core Thistle UK business, which made an operating loss of £3.6m in 2016 in the parts which were divested.

Dominic Burke, Group Chief Executive, commented:

"JLT has delivered a good set of financial results in 2016, particularly when set against the continued, challenging trading environment. The Group entered 2017 in good shape, with momentum and confidence that JLT is well-positioned to deliver organic revenue growth more in line with historical rates. I am proud of the achievements and progress we made in 2016 across all of our businesses. The resilience we showed last year positions us very well for further growth."

And the dividend:-

DIVIDENDS

Subject to shareholder approval, the final dividend will be increased to 20.6p per share for the year ended 31 December 2016 (2015: 19.5p) and will be paid on 4 May 2017 to shareholders on the register at 31 March 2017. This brings the total dividend for the year to 32.2p per share, compared to 30.6p for the prior year, an increase of 5.2%.

Purchased back in May 2007, JLT now represents 1% of my 46 share HYP. The current yield of 3.1% is lower than I would like, but this is due to the company's share price growth being greater than its dividend growth, so I am content to keep it in the portfolio.

[Breelander]

http://www.investegate.co.uk/jardine-ll ... 00189957X/

[YeeWo]

Purchased back in May 2007, JLT now represents 1% of my 46 share HYP. The current yield of 3.1% is lower than I would like, but this is due to the company's share price growth being greater than its dividend growth, so I am content to keep it in the portfolio.

JLT is 5% of my 19 share-pot. Glad the Employee Benefits problems are resolved. I bought 4 March 16 at 8.42p, nothing I've read above dissuades me from "forever".

[Deev8]

The rate of dividend growth has been OK. I bought JLT back in January 2005 (at 383p per share) and the first two dividends I received came to a total of 20.5p. The interim paid in October plus the final just declared will total 32.2p.

Dave