www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=2 ... 5203R&fe=1
Financial results
· Group net revenue up 2% to £1,621.3m
· Adjusted operating profit from existing operations1 down 3% to £266.8m, in line with expectations
· Exceptional charge and adjustments of £922.1m including, as previously reported, £882.8m non-cash impairment to Retail following Triennial Review decision leading to statutory loss before tax of £721.9m
· Operating cash flow before movements in working capital up 9% to £275.0m
· Balance sheet remains strong with net debt for covenant purposes6 of £308.1m, 1.0x EBITDA at period-end
· Full-year dividend of 12.0p per share, in line with policy to pay out approximately 50% of underlying earnings, based on adjusted EPS before US Expansion costs in 2018
Good progress against strategic priorities
· Driving digital growth in the UK and internationally
o Good underlying Online performance: actives +25%, underlying net revenue +6% and operating profit up 11% before c£17m impact of enhanced customer due diligence measures
o Acquisition of Mr Green for c£242m completed in January 2019, building international base and capabilities
· Growing a business of scale in the US
o US Existing business delivering continued strong momentum with 42% net revenue and 91% adjusted operating profit growth (in local currency)
o US Expansion business now live in six states, access secured to 17 states in total
o 34% market share by revenue across all seven regulated states in these early stages
· Remodelling Retail
o Resilient performance with net revenue down 2% with challenging trading backdrop on the UK high street
o Ready for implementation of new £2 stake limit on B2 gaming products in April 2019 and reshaping of Retail estate
· Nobody harmed by gambling
o Voluntary whistle-to-whistle TV advertising ban agreed during pre-watershed UK live sport
The proposed final dividend of 7.7p will, subject to shareholder approval, be paid on 6 June 2019 to all shareholders on the register on 26 April 2019. In line with the requirements of IAS 10 - 'Events after the Reporting Period', this dividend has not been recognised within these results.
Which is a cut on last year I have them down as paying 4.26 and 7.7 this year* compared with 8.94 and 4.26p last year.
* the report says 4.3p I don't know whether that is a mistake in my and my brokers records or if they are rounding the dividend up if the latter (which seems likely) that is a little odd on WMH's part.