Compass' (CPG) full-year figures were marred by a £295m one-off charge relating to restructuring at its European business, aimed at mitigating the impact of the region's economic troubles. Cost-cutting, infill acquisitions, and healthy levels of new business, helped the European and Japanese unit's sales remain flat at £6.24bn and pushed constancy currency underlying operating profit up 2.1 per cent to £397m. But business failures and falling like-for-like sales put a major dampener on divisional performances.
However, the North America and the fast-growing, emerging markets operations - which, combined, generate nearly two-thirds of sales - is going great guns as catering outsourcing grows in popularity. North American revenue rose 9.8 per cent in the period, while emerging market sales increased 13.7 per cent. Cash generation remains impressive and the company continues to use this to shareholders' advantage. As well as a hearty dividend increase, Compass has supplemented organic growth - organic revenue grew 5.4 per cent year-on-year - with acquisitions. Management has announced a £400m share buy-back for next year, too, which will follow on from its almost-completed £500m buy-back.
Broker Investec Securities predicts pre-tax profit of £1.17bn for 2013, giving EPS of 46.8p and a 23.8p dividend (2012: £1.09bn/42.4p/21.3p).
| Compass Group (CPG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 697p | MARKET VALUE: | £12,856m | |
| TOUCH: | 697-698p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 728p | LOW: 535p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.1% | PE RATIO: | 22 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 176p* | NET DEBT: | 30% | |
| Year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£bn) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 11.4 | 0.57 | 20.9 | 12.0 |
| 2009 | 13.4 | 0.77 | 29.5 | 13.2 |
| 2010 | 14.5 | 0.91 | 35.3 | 17.5 |
| 2011 | 15.8 | 0.96 | 36.4 | 19.3 |
| 2012 | 16.9 | 0.79 | 32.1 | 21.3 |
| % change | +7 | -18 | -12 | +10 |
Ex-div: 23 Jan Payment: 25 Feb *Includes intangible assets of £4.8bn, or 262p a share | ||||
