Melrose Industries FY profits rise, dividend hiked

Turnaround specialist Melrose Industries posted a rise in full-year profit and revenue on Thursday as it hiked its dividend after its first full year of ownership of GKN.

In the year to the end of December 2019, adjusted pre-tax profit increased to £889m from £672m on revenue of £11.6bn, up from £8.6bn in 2018.

The company proposed a final dividend of 3.4p a share, up 11% on the previous year and taking the full-year dividend 11% higher to 5.1p a share.

Melrose said the results were "comfortably ahead" of the board's expectations for both profit and cash generation.

Chairman Justin Dowley said: "We are delighted with the Melrose performance in 2019 and the substantial value that is being unlocked. Notwithstanding any implications of the COVID-19 outbreak, the bedrock has now been built for the GKN businesses to attain results which were not previously achievable, and, in addition, the shareholder value built up in our longer held assets is closer to being realised.

"This shows, once more, that the Melrose model thrives by investing properly in businesses and giving management the entrepreneurial freedom to succeed. This is just the start of what is possible for GKN."

Melrose said 2020 was expected to be another year of good progress. It said that while it’s too early to be precise on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its businesses or wider economic conditions, it remains focused on what it can control.