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Morrisons reports profits slump amid Covid-19 pandemic
StockMarketWire.com
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Morrisons has seen pre-tax profits fall more than 60% in 2020, with £290 million relating to 'covid costs', in spite of a rise in sales and revenue for the high street supermarket chain.
The company reported end of year sales were up 8.6% on 2019 and total revenues had increased 0.4% to £17.6 billion.
Total revenue excluding fuel was up 8.9% as fuel sales slumped 32.1% to £2.49bn during the pandemic.
The company also announced a final ordinary dividend of 5.11p, taking the full-year ordinary dividend up 5.6% to 7.15p and full-year total dividend up 27.1% to 11.15p.
Morrisons expects 2021/22 profit before tax and exceptionals including rates paid to be higher than the £431m profit achieved in 2020/21, excluding the £230m waived rates relief.
It also would like the coming year to bring strong free cash flow and a significant reduction in net debt, with net debt/EBITDA expected to be no higher than the 2019/20 level of 2.4x, the company said.
CEO of Morrisons, David Potts, said: 'This target assumes a gradual return to more normal trading conditions, no significant increases in expected direct COVID-19 costs such as elevated colleague absence, and no further restrictions such as another period of prolonged café closures.
'However, we enter 2021/22 with strong trading and operational gearing momentum, and further productivity and cost efficiency opportunities supported by our very robust underlying cash flow and balance sheet, all of which allows us flexibility around the choices we make for all stakeholders and gives us confidence in our profit guidance.'
At 9:17am: (LON:MRW) Morrison Wm Supermarkets PLC share price was 0p at 173.7p
Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
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