The Restaurant Group plc (TRG) is engaged in the operation of restaurants and pub restaurants. The principle brands are Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquito, coast to Coast, Garfunkel’s, Home Counties Pub Restaurants and Brunning & Price. I have a holding in my income portfolio (epic code: RTN).
The Restaurant Group announced their final results today and were as expected following their post close update on 9th January.
Revenue increased by 8.8% to £580m and on a like-for-like basis increased by 3.5%. The operating margin was up 40bps to 12.9% and the EPS increased by 16.3% to 27.97p. The full year dividend was increased by 18.6% to 14p and was covered 2x.
Free cash flow was £21m down from £30.1m last year, due to an increase of £22.2m on capital expenditure due to their accelerated opening programme of new restaurants. New restaurant openings were 35 in 2013 and management expect to achieve 36-43 new openings in 2014.
Net debt increased from £39.1m to £45.1m, although this is perfectly manageable with gearing just 20.9%, and an operating cash flow to Debt of 218%.
A good set of results and the current year's start is described as "...the first two months of 2014 have started well with total sales 10% ahead of last year (like-for-like sales up 3.5%)..."
Management describe their aim as "...to continue to strengthen our market positions, to judiciously roll out our brands and deliver long-term and sustainable profitable growth. The Group has demonstrated its resilience and we expect it to benefit significantly from an upturn in consumer confidence..." This with their strong operating cash flows, should enable RTN to deliver above average increases in the dividend for some years.
No comments:
Post a Comment