Card Factory interim profit jumps; special dividend announced

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Card Factory (LSE: CARD.L - news) posted a jump in interim pre-tax profit on the back of strong revenue growth, as it announced a special dividend. For the six months ended 31 July, underlying pre-tax profit rose 72.3% from the same period last year to £25.7m on revenue of £161.4m, up 8%.

Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to £32.5m from £30.2m.

The company said its underlying net financing expense fell significantly to £2.1m from £11.2m reflecting changes to the group's capital structure following the IPO, benefits from debt refinancings and reductions in net debt from organic cash generation.

Card Factory declared an interim dividend of 2.5p per share, up from 2.3p and a special dividend of 15p per share, returning £51.1m of excess cash to shareholders, which it said reflected ongoing strong cash generation.

Chief executive Richard Hayes said: "It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is encouraging to report another strong set of interim results with growth in both revenue and profit. We continue to deliver on each of our four growth pillars: growing like-for-like sales, rolling out new stores, delivering business efficiencies and growing our online businesses.

"It is also pleasing to announce a special dividend, in keeping with our commitment to return surplus cash to shareholders." The company said it opened 36 new stores in the period, bringing the total estate to 800. In addition, it noted a strong pipeline of further new store opportunities and said it was on track to deliver around 50 new openings by the year end.