The Signature Aviation Board is declaring an increased per share final dividend of 10.57¢ (2018: 10.07¢) up 5%, reflecting the Board's progressive dividend policy and its continued confidence in the Group's future growth prospects.
Other financial highlights include:
Signature FBO network outperformed the US B&GA market by 90 basis points
Sale of Ontic to CVC for $1,365 million and $833.6 million of capital returned to shareholders
Total Group underlying operating profit $441.1 million, Continuing Group underlying operating profit $320.8 million
Total Group operating profit on a statutory basis up 19.6% at $312.7 million (2018: $261.5 million) due primarily to the adoption of IFRS 16 on 1 January 2019
Signature:
o Signature FBO organic revenue up 1.1%, with new commercial initiatives contributing to our outperformance of the US B&GA market
o US B&GA market growth of 0.2% in the twelve months to 31 December 2019
o Improved market outperformance of 100 basis points in H2 2019
o Signature underlying operating profit $361.0 million
Discontinued operations:
o ERO delivered underlying operating profit of $52.8 million through robust trading, and with the benefit of continued suspension of depreciation and amortisation
o ERO impairment of $124.7m to reflect fair value less cost to sell. Disposal process making good progress
o Ontic contributed underlying operating profit of $67.5 million for the ten months of ownership
Total Group free cash flow of $187.2 million continues to highlight inherently strong free cash flow generation
Leverage reduced to 2.2x net debt/underlying EBITDA on a covenant basis (including the EBITDA of Ontic for 10 months but excluding a tax payment relating to the Ontic disposal), target range of 2.5-3.0x on a covenant basis to be maintained
Underlying Total Group adjusted basic EPS of 25.6¢. Total Group basic unadjusted EPS of 65.2¢
