Stock Market News
Royal Mail's Greene warns GDPR may hit letter volumes
Royal Mail delivered a good set of final results, with chief executive Moya Greene beating beating City expectations before she stands down next month but warning that general data protection regulation laws may lead to a steeper decline in letter deliveries this year.
Guidance for the new financial year was otherwise as good or better than the past year, with UK parcel volume and revenue growth anticipated as being "at least the same", around £230m of UK cost "avoidance" in line with the above-target delivered £235m delivered in the past year but transformation costs at the upper end of the £130-150m range.
But while the outlook remains for letter volume to decline 4-6% per year over the medium‑term, the decline is expected to be at least at higher end of range this current year due to the new GDPR rules and could push outside that envelope "if business uncertainty persists".
With chief executive-elect Rico Back coming from the Europe-focused parcel arm GLS, there is expected to be a continued good performance from there, though margins are seen as susceptible to continuing labour market pressures.
Total net cash investment is expected to be roughly £500m, up from £445m in this past year to 31 March, closer to the £492m from 2016/17.
In her parting act, Greene hailed revenue topping the significant milestone of £10bn, up 2% to £10.17bn to be exact, roughly as expected by the market.
Also, parcel volume growth in UKPIL was the best for four years, up 5%, or 4% if Amazon is excluded. A 5% drop in letters was seen as "resilient" and in line with the 4-6% forecast range.
"We continue to focus on cost avoidance and parcel revenue growth in the UK and through GLS. The good cash generation characteristics of our business will support our progressive dividend policy."
A recommended final dividend of 16.3p per share will give a total dividend of 24.0p per share, up 4% and bang in line with the City consensus.
Adjusted operating profit pre-transformation costs up 1% to £694m, beating the average analyst estimate of £685m, with adjusted earnings per share of 45.5p well ahead of the 42.2p expected.
Guidance for the new financial year was otherwise as good or better than the past year, with UK parcel volume and revenue growth anticipated as being "at least the same", around £230m of UK cost "avoidance" in line with the above-target delivered £235m delivered in the past year but transformation costs at the upper end of the £130-150m range.
But while the outlook remains for letter volume to decline 4-6% per year over the medium‑term, the decline is expected to be at least at higher end of range this current year due to the new GDPR rules and could push outside that envelope "if business uncertainty persists".
With chief executive-elect Rico Back coming from the Europe-focused parcel arm GLS, there is expected to be a continued good performance from there, though margins are seen as susceptible to continuing labour market pressures.
Total net cash investment is expected to be roughly £500m, up from £445m in this past year to 31 March, closer to the £492m from 2016/17.
In her parting act, Greene hailed revenue topping the significant milestone of £10bn, up 2% to £10.17bn to be exact, roughly as expected by the market.
Also, parcel volume growth in UKPIL was the best for four years, up 5%, or 4% if Amazon is excluded. A 5% drop in letters was seen as "resilient" and in line with the 4-6% forecast range.
"We continue to focus on cost avoidance and parcel revenue growth in the UK and through GLS. The good cash generation characteristics of our business will support our progressive dividend policy."
A recommended final dividend of 16.3p per share will give a total dividend of 24.0p per share, up 4% and bang in line with the City consensus.
Adjusted operating profit pre-transformation costs up 1% to £694m, beating the average analyst estimate of £685m, with adjusted earnings per share of 45.5p well ahead of the 42.2p expected.
Related share prices |
---|
Royal Mail (RMG) share price |
Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk
Get a free widget for your website with our latest headlines.
You can now add our live prices and new headlines to your website.The news widget features quotes for Oil prices, spot Gold price and Indices plus a choice of news channel for healines.
Top Shares pages
- Share price quotes
- Share charts
- Share watch list
- Company Results Calendar
- Top Large UK Shares
- UK Market Sectors
- Stock market news
- Company news
- Share tips
- A-Z company search
More share features
POPULAR Share Prices
- Royal Mail share price
- Lloyds share price
- HSBC share price
- Barclays share price
- Prudential share price
- Santander share price
- NEXT share price
- Diageo share price
- BP share price
- Vodafone share price
- British Airways
- Centrica share price
- Tesco share price
- Taylor Wimpey Share Price
- National Grid
- GKP Share Price
- Marks and Spencer
- Rolls Royce
- Rio Tinto
- THG Share Price
- Aviva Share Price
- Boil Share price
- Easyjet Share Price
- Genedrive Share Price
- SSE Share Price
- IAG Share Price
- Boohoo share price
- HE1 share price
- AVCT share price
- BOOM share price