Business support services company DCC has reported higher operating profits for the year to the end of March and said it intends to return up to £800m from the proceeds of a recent divestment to shareholders.
Last month the company agreed to sell DCC Healthcare to HealthCo Investment Limited for a total enterprise value of £1.05 billion.
DCC said today the deal is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals and is expected to complete in the third quarter of this calendar year.
The company today reported adjusted operating profits of £703.6m, an increase of 3% on the previous year.
But its revenues for the year dipped by 4.5% to £18.01 billion from £18.854 billion due to lower revenue in DCC Energy wgere average commodity prices were lower.
Its profits before tax for the year also fell by 17.9% to £294.9m from £359.2m
DCC said it is proposing a 5% increase in the final dividend to 140.21 pence per share, which, when added to the interim dividend of 66.19 pence per share, gives a total dividend for the year of 206.40 pence per share.
DCC said this marks 31 consecutive years of dividend growth.
Looking ahead, DCC expects that the year ending 31 March 2026 will be a year of good operating profit growth on a continuing basis, strategic progress and continued development activity.
Donal Murphy, DCC's chief executive, said the company delivered another year of good growth, while making strategic progress to simplify the group to focus on its opportunity in Energy.
"Our sale of DCC Healthcare enables a material return of capital to shareholders. We will focus our efforts on Energy, our largest and highest-returning business. We are energised about the future," Mr Murphy added.
Breaking down its divisions, operating profits at DCC Energy rose by 6.5% to £535.5m from £503m, while revenues fell by 6% to £13.4 billion and volumes inched 0.1% higher to 15.2 billion.
It noted that volumes in Solutions increased by 2.3%, despite the headwind of mild weather conditions. But this was offset by a decline in Mobility volumes of 5.1% mainly due to an anticipated reduction in volumes in Denmark.
Meanwhile, revenues at DCC Technology were up 0.3% to £4.645 billlion, while operating profits fell by 15.7% to £82m on the back of continued soft demand for consumer technology
products, especially in the UK and Continental Europe.
