Preliminary Results For Year Ended 31 March 2005
25 May 2005
Strong financial performance
- 10% increase in profit before amortisation of goodwill, exceptional items and taxation* to £910m (2004: £827m)
- Profit before tax increased to £693m (2004: £692m)
- 5% increase in basic earnings per share before amortisation of goodwill and exceptional items* to 63.8p (2004: 60.7p)
- Basic earnings per share 42.3p (2004: 47.4p)
- 9% increase in full year dividend to 29.5p (2004: 27.0p)
- 10.3% post-tax return on capital (2004: 10.2%)
- ARG: sales up 7% and profit up 10% before one-off charges*
- Experian: sales up 18% and profit up 16% for continuing activities at constant exchange rates
- Burberry: sales up 10% and profit up 21% at constant exchange rates
- Lewis: sold remaining stake
- Burberry: demerger later in year
- ARG and Experian:
- driving sustainable growth is key
- future separation
* One-off charges have been made covering the Argos OFT fine (£16.2m) and Homebase reorganisation costs (£18.3m). Excluding these one-off charges, Group PBT was £945m (up 14%) and basic EPS before amortisation of goodwill and exceptional items was 66.2p (up 9%).
Sir Victor Blank, Chairman of GUS, commented:
"The Board has drawn its conclusions from the strategic review about future group structure and has started to take actions accordingly. It recognises that there is no strategic logic in maintaining ARG, Experian and Burberry within the same group in the long term. While the separation of ARG and Experian will be undertaken at the right time in the future, the Board has decided that it is appropriate to demerge Burberry later this year to give our investors a direct interest in Burberry's exciting future."
John Peace, Chief Executive of GUS, commented:
"We are delighted with the progress made again at GUS during the year, especially as this is the fourth year of double-digit growth. Once again all three of our main businesses have achieved record profits in 2005. Looking forward, the UK retail environment remains very challenging but we are confident that our businesses have clear strategies to deliver long-term sustainable growth, supported by continuing investment."
Enquiries
| GUS | ||
| John Peace | Group Chief Executive | 020 7495 0070 |
| David Tyler | Group Finance Director | |
| Fay Dodds | Director of Investor Relations | |
| Finsbury | ||
| Rupert Younger | 020 7251 3801 | |
| 020 7251 3801 |
There will be a presentation today at 9.30am to analysts and investors at the Merrill Lynch Financial Centre, 2 King Edward Street, London EC1A 1HQ. The presentation can be viewed live on the GUS website at www.gusplc.com . The supporting slides and an indexed replay will also be available there later in the day.
There will be a conference call to discuss the results at 3.00pm today (UK time), with a recording available later on the website. All relevant GUS, Burberry and Lewis Group announcements are also available on www.gusplc.com.
The restatement of these preliminary results under International Financial Reporting Standards will be published on 14 June 2005. GUS will hold its AGM and issue its First Quarter Trading Update on 20 July 2005.
Certain statements made in this announcement are forward looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these forward looking statements.
Any shares to be distributed in the proposed demerger have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) and may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration. No public offering of such shares will be made in the United States.
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