TOP NEWS: Compass Skips Dividend As Profit Slumps; Sees Positive Signs

(Alliance News) - Compass PLC on Tuesday reported a sharp fall in annual earnings and axed its ...

Alliance News 24 November, 2020 | 8:33AM
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(Alliance News) - Compass PLC on Tuesday reported a sharp fall in annual earnings and axed its dividend as the coronavirus pandemic forced the contract caterer to close its operations.

For the 12 months ended September 30, revenue fell 20% to GBP20 billion from GBP24.9 billion in financial 2019, and pretax profit slumped 86% to GBP210 million from GBP1.49 billion last year. Operating profit dropped 82% to GBP294 million from GBP1.63 billion.

As such, Compass axed its annual dividend, having paid out 40.0 pence per share in financial 2019. The company said it will keep future dividends under review and will restart payments when it is appropriate to do so.

The Chertsey, Surrey-based firm said it started 2020 well and was on track to deliver a strong performance but over the course of a fortnight in March, containment measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 forced the company to close half of the business.

Over the summer, Compass said its performance began to improve slowly as lockdown measures eased and it helped clients in education, business and Industry return to schools and offices safely.

More encouragingly, Compass said in the fourth quarter it returned the business to profitability and is now cash neutral. This was achieved, it said, mainly through contract renegotiations to reflect the difficult trading environment, continued discipline in terms of costs, and improvement in volumes.

Looking ahead, Compass expects the underlying operating margin in the first quarter of 2021 to be around 2.5%.

"Although the prospects of a vaccine are encouraging, the resumption of lockdowns in some of our major markets shows that we have to continue to take proactive actions to control the controllable and ensure the business can thrive despite the ongoing pandemic," said Chief Executive Dominic Blakemore.

"We are innovating and evolving our operating model to be more flexible and to provide our clients and consumers with an exciting offer that is delivered safely and provides great value. This combined with our existing scale, ability to flex costs and focus on operational execution, will allow us to return to a group underlying margin above 7% before we return to pre-Covid volumes," added Blakemore.

The stock was up 5.0% at 1,411.00 pence, the second-best performer in the FTSE 100 on Tuesday.

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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Securities Mentioned in Article

Security Name Price Change (%) Morningstar
Rating
Compass Group PLC 2,229.00 GBX -0.13

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