Date: Wednesday 03 Jun 2015
LONDON (ShareCast) - Motor dealership business Caffyns posted a rise in pre-tax profit to £11.4m in the year ended 31 March 2015 from £1.57m last year as it booked a £9m credit before tax related to previously-announced changes to contributions to its pension scheme.
Excluding the credit, pre-tax profit rose to £2.5m from £2.2m, while revenue was up at £210.3m from £193.2m.
The company, which owns eight franchises in 12 locations in Sussex and Kent, raised its dividend for the year by 12.5% to 20.25p from 18p and recommended a final dividend of 13.5p per share.
New unit sales were up 66% on a like-for-like basis in the twelve month period, while total UK new car registrations increased by 7.5%, the company said. Caffyns outperformed the private and small business sector in which it operates, which rose by 4.9%.
Like-for-like used car unit sales were up 4.3%, building on the strong improvement of 17.5% last year, the company said.
Shares in computing services group RapidCloud took a big hit on Wednesday after it reported an increase in costs in its full-year results.
The group posted an increase of 57% in revenues to Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)17.8m from MYR11.3m and profits before tax rose marginally to MYR3.2m from MYR3.16m the year before.
The gross margin fell to 54% from 75% resulting from cost of sales related to the Exxcelnet acquisition and costs related to the development of new products. Administrative expenses rose to MYR7.56m from MYR3.9m in 2013.
RapidCloud acquired Exxelnet during the second half of the year for MYR4.59m, which enhanced earnings and opened its market in Singapore.