Results in line with expectations

Financial Performance*

• EBITDA of £225 million (2009: £275 million)
• Profit before tax of £66 million (2009: £82 million)
• Disposal proceeds of £198 million, mainly from non-core assets - achieved at an average multiple of 13x EBITDA and ahead of book value
• Basic earnings per share of 7.5p
• Net Asset Value per share of 272p

Statutory Results (after exceptional items) **

• Profit after exceptional items of £59 million following a net exceptional credit of £11 million
• Basic earnings per share after exceptional items of 9.2p

Capital Structure

• Net debt reduced by a further £188 million (5%) to £3,277 million in the 28 week period, a total reduction of £1,254 million (28%) over the last 18 months
• Outstanding securitised debt has a 17 year average maturity and weighted average cost of 6.8%
• Continue to make good progress with the asset disposal programme, focusing on non-core asset sales, on track to generate £300 million of proceeds for the full financial year
• Debt repayments have helped maintain headroom against financial covenants and we are confident that actions management has taken to date and continues to take will provide sufficient ongoing headroom to our key DSCR financial covenants

Leased Estate

• Pubs returned from partners at their lowest level for two years and 40% down on the previous year
• 82% of the estate is let on substantive agreements, in line with the end of the last financial year
• Lessee partner support levels stable at £2 million per month
• Majority of beer price increases to our partners limited to 1% against wholesale price increases of 3%
• New ‘Punch Buying Club’ lease agreement to include free of tie options; Punch Charter being updated to exceed standards of Industry Framework Code

Managed Estate

• Completed the implementation of Operational Excellence programme
• Employee retention up 40%
• Guest advocacy measures up 15%
• Stabilisation of operating margin
• Initial pilots of new concepts complete with rollout across the estate to commence from the second half of the year

*  before exceptional items
** full analysis of exceptional items are shown in note 3 to the Financial Statements

Peter Cawdron, Chairman of Punch Taverns plc, commented
 
“There is no doubt that conditions remain challenging across the economy and especially in the pub sector.  Punch is committed to working with its licensee partners, employees, trade bodies, regulators and guests to support the future of the great British pub.  We firmly believe that the actions we have taken and will continue to take are the right ones to deliver long term sustainable growth for Punch and all stakeholders.”

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