EasyJet shareholders to get bumper windfall after profits soar
EasyJet shareholders are to receive a £175 million windfall after the airline’s annual pre-tax profit soared 50% to £478 million.
The Board has recommended shareholders receive a special dividend of 44.4p a share in addition to the regular ordinary dividend of £133 million or 33.5p per share, based on its existing policy of paying shareholders a third of annual profit after tax.
The special dividend is subject to shareholder approval at the company’s annual general meeting on February 13 2014.
Announcing its full year results to the end of September 2013, the airline revealed its revenue grew 10.5%, total revenue per seat was up by 7% to £62.58.
Its 3.3% increase in capacity during the year was just shy of the 4% increase in passengers carried, resulting in a slight 0.6 percentage points rise in the load factor to 89.3%.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said:"EasyJet has delivered a strong full year performance and made significant progress against executing its strategic priorities.
"The results reflect easyJet’s continued structural advantage in the European short-haul market against both the legacy and low cost competition.
"Our disciplined approach to capacity allocation has resulted in a meaningful growth in earnings, profit margin and return on capital employed and we have ended the year with a strong balance sheet and a low level of gearing.
"As evidence of our continued confidence in the future prospects of the business the Board has recommended to return £308 million to shareholders through the combination of an ordinary and special dividend."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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