Ei Group plc, the largest owner and operator of pubs in the UK, today announces its results for the six months ended 31 March 2019, showing growth in underlying EBITDA to £140m (H1 2018: £139m).
The company reported underlying profit before tax increased to £59m (H1 2018: £57m)
During the period, the firm sold 348 commercial sites for £332.7m.
Statutory profit after tax of £9m (H1 2018: £37m), after non-underlying charges of £40m (H1 2018: £10m), largely relating to the allocation of £31m (H1 2018: £4 million) of goodwill to property disposals.
Publican Partnerships
o Like-for-like net income up 1.9% (H1 2018: up 0.6%) with growth across all geographic regions
o Average annualised net income per pub# up 2.7% to £83,100 (H1 2018: £80,900)
Managed Pubs
o Like-for-like sales growth of 6.0% (H1 2018: up 6.6%) across our largely wet-led managed house businesses
o Managed Operations - growth on track with 357 (H1 2018: 276) pubs trading within our wholly-owned managed division
o Managed Investments - continued progress with 62 (H1 2018: 43) pubs trading with 11 specialist partners
Commercial Properties
o Total portfolio of 83 (H1 2018: 351) properties of which 22 are expected to be sold, subject to superior landlord consent, for £11.4 million over the coming months
o The retained portfolio of 61 properties generates net annualised rental income of £4m with average annualised net income per property of £65,600 (H1 2018: 351 properties generated net annualised rental income of £25m with average annualised net income per property of £68,600).
CEO Simon Townsend (pictured right with CFO Neil Smlth) said, 'We are pleased with the trading performance of our Group for the first half of the year. We continue to deliver sustained like-for-like net income growth within our core Publican Partnerships business and are generating strong returns as we expand our Managed Operations and Managed Investments businesses.
'Despite an environment of unprecedented political uncertainty and inflationary pressure from increases in the national minimum and living wage, consumers continue to support their local pub. This consumer resilience, combined with excellent operational execution and effective capital investment, provides us with the confidence that we can maintain our growth momentum for the year as a whole, despite some challenging comparative trading periods ahead of us in June and July.
'The completion of the disposal of 348 commercial properties in March represented a significant milestone for the Group. We have demonstrated our ability to grow value through the transfer of assets to their optimum use and then to unlock that value through monetisation providing evidence of our strategy in action. We are using the significant cash proceeds received from the transaction to accelerate our debt reduction plans and to deliver value to our shareholders.
'We are pleased to announce today a further £30 million share buyback programme, in addition to the £55 million programmes previously announced in this financial year.'