British automotive dealership Inchcape on Thursday posted a better-than-expected full-year revenue and resumed its annual dividend, as on-line providers assist it proceed delivering autos at a time when the pandemic has compelled automotive showrooms to remain shut.
The corporate, which operates in round 30 markets, mentioned it expects important progress in earnings and better working margin in 2021, if there are not any extreme pandemic-related restrictions.
Inchcape was capable of ship autos, provide a “click-and-collect” service and proceed to carry out after-sales providers by means of a lot of the pandemic, which helped its efficiency decide up largely within the second half of final yr, it mentioned.
The corporate, which sells new and used vehicles together with automotive components, proposed an annual divided of 6.9 pence per share.
The worldwide well being disaster has added to the troubles of UK automotive sellers, which had been already going through muted demand and pressured margins following Britain’s resolution to go away the European Union.
Pre-exceptional pretax revenue for the 12 months ended Dec. 31 fell 61% to 129 million kilos ($182.63 million), however managed to barely beat analysts’ expectations of 118.3 million kilos, based on Refinitiv knowledge.
The corporate’s gross sales in Asia-Pacific fell by 27%, a area which accounted for almost half of its income. Total income dropped 27%.
