Market News - Page 881

Highlights
— Like for like new car unit sales up 6.2% against 3.3% in our market sector
— Like for like used car unit sales up 9.3%
— Revenue up by 10.6% to GBP232m
— Underlying profit before tax up 15.6% to GBP2,857,000 (2015: GBP2,472,000)
— Underlying earnings per share up 23.4% to 96.4p (2015: 78.1p)
— Recommended dividend per ordinary share for year increased by 7.4% to 21.75p
— Property portfolio revalued at 31 March 2016: GBP9.5m surplus (not included in accounts)

— Disposal of Land Rover business in Lewes, retaining the freehold premises, for cash consideration of GBP7.5m post year-end.
Commenting on the results, Simon Caffyn, Chief Executive said:
“I am delighted to announce that the underlying profit before tax for last year increased by 15.6% and we now have significant financial flexibility to take advantage of opportunities to expand.”
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Henry Boot – AGM Statement

Trading since the beginning of 2016 has, once again, been encouraging; the Group's three business segments, land development, property investment and development and construction, are all trading well. However, we may see some transactional uncertainty around the EU referendum. We do not anticipate this will last for long or have a detrimental effect on the year as a whole, and therefore we remain confident that trading will meet the Board's expectations for the full year. …

LondonMetric Plc – Purchase of Crawley Distribution site

LondonMetric Property Plc (“LondonMetric”) announces that it has purchased a four acre site in Crawley to develop approximately 100,000 sq ft of prime distribution space at a cost of cGBP20 million, reflecting a yield on cost of c6.3%.
Located on a prime South East urban logistics estate less than one mile from Gatwick Airport, the site has been purchased for GBP7.6 million. Planning for the new scheme is expected by the end of this year with build completion anticipated in the first quarter of 2018.
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Benchmark Plc – Trading Update

Trading Update and Notice of Results — Trading in line with management's expectations
— INVE integration progressing well with first operational synergies realised
— Braintree manufacturing facility expected to enter commissioning by September
— Encouraging progress in development pipeline

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McKAY REPORTS SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS IN ALL KEY AREAS 24/05/2016…

Group reported revenues up 2% to GBP803 million, driven by strong Television and Family performance, offset by weaker Film…

FY16 outturn in line with market expectations
  The year to 31 March 2016 ended in line with market expectations.  Aggregate generation increased by 70 per cent in FY16 to 3,177 GWh from 1,861 GWh in FY15. …

Scapa Plc – Final Results…