Bookmaker Paddy Power this morning announced record profits for 2003, despite a shaky start to the year when results at the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National forced it to issue a profits warning.
Paddy Power said its pre-tax profits rose 15% to €20.4m for the year to the end of December. Turnover jumped 36% to €913.6m from €673.8m the previous year.
Its earnings per share rose 18% to 36.97 cent - up over five cent on 2002. The board has recommended a final dividend of 8.59 cent per share, bringing the total for the year to 12.89 cent a share. That is an increase of 26% on 2002.
The company had issued a profit warning in April due to unfavourable horse racing results in the UK, but saw its fortunes change as the year progressed.
'Even allowing for Cheltenham and the Grand National, 2003 was an excellent year,' Paddy Power Chairman John O'Reilly said. 'The ups and downs of results are an integral part of betting. While as bookmakers, we prefer more ups than downs, we live in the knowledge that what goes around comes around, as we saw in the second half of 2003.'
Paddy Power said its retail, telephone and online divisions grew by 23%, 44% and 80% respectively during the year. Its online division exceeded its break-even expectations and generated an operating profit of €1.4m.
The company has 137 outlets across Ireland. Eight new outlets were opened in Ireland during the year, with ten relocations, three extensions and ten refits. By the end of the year, the bookie chain had 12 shops open in the UK. It said it is confident of rolling out between eight and ten new shops in Ireland and up to 18 in the UK in 2004.
Paddy Power said that trading for the year to date has so far been in line with expectations. 'The Irish betting office market remains our core business and we are confident it will continue to grow through a programme of new shop openings, relocations and extensions together with underlying organic growth,' a statement said.
'Further growth is our telephone business is expected in both Ireland and the UK. The Online business continues to develop its sports book offering and further expansion is expected in 2004,' it added. 'The outlook remains positive across the business,' the statement concluded.
* Shares in Paddy Power jumped 6.08% in Dublin this evening to €8.01 - a gain of 46 cent.
