25 February 2011 – final results
Solid final results have been released by the company. Profit before tax was up 60% at £193.3m and basic earnings per share almost doubled to 18.6p (2009: 9.5p). The final dividend was 5.8p per share, up from 5.0p a year earlier. This brought the total for the year to 8.3p (2009: 7.5p). It also appears that 2011 has started well and although interest from investors seems somewhat lacklustre in the near term we continue to rate the shares as a BUY.