Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc. (JLT.L) announced preliminary results for the year ended 31st December 2012, reporting that profit attributable to Owners of the parent increased to 106.45 million pounds from 88.75 million pounds in the previous year.
Underlying profit before tax was 161.7 million pounds, 10% ahead of 2011, while reported profit before tax was 156.8 million pounds compared to 134.5 million pounds in the prior year, an increase of 17%. This was after charging net exceptional costs of 4.9 million pounds, primarily relating to the Business Transformation Programme and acquisition integration costs.
Underlying profit after tax and non-controlling interests increased by 11% to 110.3 million pounds and underlying earnings per share increased by 11% to 50.2 pence.
Total revenue for the year increased to 880.06 million pounds from 818.76 million pounds in the prior year.
The company said that the final dividend will be increased to 15.9 pence per share for the year to 31st December 2012, compared to 14.8 pence paid last year, and will be paid on 1st May 2013 to shareholders on the register at 5th April 2013. This brings the total dividend for the year to 25.5p per share, compared to 24.0p for the prior year, an increase of 6.3%.
The company announced a new Business Transformation Programme. The new two year programme is designed to address two further opportunities which did not fall within the scope of the first programme, the company said.
Firstly, to improve the process and back-office activities of Asian and Latin American businesses, which are today much larger businesses than they were four years ago when the first business transformation programme started and whose local language demands cannot easily be met in Mumbai.
Secondly, whilst the benefits of offshore process migration from more mature businesses have largely been captured, it has become evident that there are significant additional benefits to be gained from strengthening and aligning their operating platforms to enable greater specialty focus, increased international collaboration and the seamless servicing of global clients.
The anticipated financial impact of this programme is total estimated one-off project costs of 18 million pounds over two years resulting in annualised savings of 12 million pounds in 2014. The company expects to incur 12 million pounds in costs in 2013 resulting in anticipated savings of 6 million pounds in the year.
The company anticipates that exceptional costs in 2013 will be in the region of 23 million pounds. These are driven by one-off costs related to move to new premises in London (7 million pounds), acquisition and integration costs principally associated with AFCA (4 million pounds) and the new Business Transformation Programme (12 million pounds).
The company said it confident that its distinctive strategy and strong momentum will enable it to deliver year-on-year financial progress.
In a separate press release, the company announced that, with effect from 5th March 2013, Jonathan Dawson has been appointed Chairman of the Group's Audit and Risk Committee, succeeding Nick MacAndrew who has been chairman since 2005.
This change anticipates Nick's planned retirement from the Board in 2014; until then he will remain as the Senior Independent Director and be a member of the Audit and Risk, Remuneration and Nominations committees.
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