Highlights
Ø EBITDA before exceptional items £153 million (H1 2012: £168 million).
Ø Like-for-like net income in total estate down 4.2% (H1 2012: 1.6% down).
Ø Net proceeds from disposals of £54 million (H1 2012: £89 million) with an expectation of £150 million proceeds for the full year.
Ø Strong cash generation enables continued progress delivering our debt reduction strategy with net debt at £2.7 billion (H1 2012: £2.9 billion) and expected to reduce to £2.5 billion by the financial year end.
Statutory results
Ø Profit before tax and exceptional items £55 million (H1 2012: £64 million)
Ø Profit after tax £25 million (H1 2012: £53 million)
Ø Adjusted earnings per share 8.4p (H1 2012: 9.6p)
Commenting on the results, Ted Tuppen, Chief Executive said:
"Trading in the first half of the year has been particularly challenging. The heavy snowfalls in January and the coldest spring for many years have not encouraged customers to venture out to their local pub. Against this backdrop we are satisfied with the results for the first half of the financial year and are encouraged that in recent weeks we have seen a recovery in trade. Our target continues to be the delivery of like-for-like net income growth across the entire estate during the second half of this year.
Our strong cash generation from operations combined with the successful disposal programme enables us to maintain our strategy of debt reduction which will see total net debt reduced to £2.5 billion by the year end, a reduction of £0.8 billion over the last three years."
