Kingfisher preliminary results for the year ended 31 January 2015: Sales up 2.9%; UK & Ireland +5.5%

LONDON, 2015-3-31 — /EPR Retail News/ — Sales up 2.9%, adjusted pre-tax profit of £675m, down 7.5%. New CEO outlines plans to organise Kingfisher very differently and announces her first ‘sharp’ decisions on the journey to ‘ONE’ Kingfisher

2014/15 Financial overview:

	2014/15	2013/14	Reported	Constant currency	Constant currency
			% Total Change	% Total Change	% LFL* Change
Sales*	£10,966m	£11,125m	(1.4)%	+2.9%	+0.5%
Retail profit*	£733m	£779m	(5.9)%	(1.6)%
Adjusted* pre-tax profit	£675m	£730m	(7.5)%
Adjusted basic EPS	20.9p	22.8p	(8.3)%
Full year dividend	10.0p	9.9p	+1.0%
Net cash*	£329m	£238m	n/a

* Throughout this release ‘*’ indicates the first instance of terms defined in Section 5 ‘Glossary’ of this announcement.

2014/15 highlights

Total sales in constant currencies up 2.9% (France -1.0%, UK & Ireland +5.5%, Other International +5.0%)
Adjusted pre-tax profit of £675m impacted by a slower market in France since summer 2014, £34m adverse foreign exchange movements on the translation of non-sterling profits and £22m charges for new country development activity
Year end net cash of £329m is after £275m capital investment and £434m of cash returned to shareholders
Appointed new Chief Executive Officer in December 2014, new initiatives underway on the journey for ‘ONE’ Kingfisher

Commenting on the strategic update:

Véronique Laury, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Home improvement is a great market with huge potential and Kingfisher has a strong position within it with further scope to grow in a sustainable way. However, it is clear to me that we need to organise ourselves very differently to unlock our potential. This will involve taking what is essentially a locally managed set of businesses and creating instead a single, unified company where customer needs come first. The first step in developing this new organisation is the creation of a new, international leadership team with more focused cross-company roles.

“We have a lot to do and we are announcing today a set of first ‘sharp’ decisions which are already underway including the closure of around 15% surplus B&Q space (c.60 stores) and our few loss making stores in Europe, the development of unified garden and bathroom businesses and the start of a Big Box revitalisation programme across Europe.

“In addition, we will be developing our detailed plans for the wider reorganisation of the company as we progress on this exciting journey towards becoming ‘ONE’ Kingfisher.”

Karen Witts, Chief Financial Officer, said:

“We believe our plans will drive an increase in the value of our business for shareholders, with improved financial metrics through higher sales and lower costs, whilst at the same time optimising the generation and use of cash. Besides the growth in full year dividend, we are also pleased to be announcing today a further £200 million capital return during FY 2015/16 reflecting our confidence in our medium term prospects. In the short term, whilst we remain encouraged by the improving economic backdrop in the UK, we remain cautious on the outlook for France, our biggest market.”

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Statutory reporting

	2014/15	2013/14	% Change Reported
Statutory pre-tax profit	£644m	£759m	(15.2)%
Statutory post-tax profit	£573m	£710m	(19.3)%
Basic EPS	24.3p	30.0p	(19.0)%

Contacts:

Sarah Levy, Group Investor Relations Director
+44 (0) 20 7644 1032

Christian Cowley, Head of Investor Relations
+44 (0) 20 7644 1126

Nigel Cope, Head of Media Relations
+44 (0) 20 7644 1030

Giles Hartley, Investor Relations Manager
+44 (0) 20 7644 1082

Brunswick
+44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Further copies of this announcement can be downloaded from www.kingfisher.com or viewed on the Kingfisher IR iPad App available for free at the Apple App store. We can be followed on Twitter @kingfisherplc.

Kingfisher American Depository Receipts are traded in the US on the OTCQX platform: (OTCQX: KGFHY) http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/KGFHY/quote