Woolworths’ Full Year Result 27 Aug 20: Woolworths Group (WOW) profits dragged down by increased costs

Woolies full year result was broadly in line with analyst’s expectations. The bottom line for the grocer saw net profit after tax (NPAT) fall by 54.5% to $1.16 billion. Significant items for the year included the costs associated with the NSW supply chain of $176 million, Endeavour Group transformation of $230 million and costs associated with the underpayment of worker’s salaries, which led to remediation cost of $185 million. Excluding one off items, NPAT from continuing operations fell by 8.4% to $1,602 million. Normalised NPAT on the same basis decreased by 1.2%. Sales for the period rose by 8.1% to $63.6 billion.  Earnings before interest & tax (EBIT) from continuing operations and before significant items, decreased by 0.4% on a normalised basis. Excluding the contribution of the Hotels business, EBIT on the same basis rose by 5.8%. Hotels’ sales declined by 19.5% on normalised basis compared to the prior year to $1.3 billion. WOW declared a fully-franked final dividend of 48 cents per share, bringing the full-year payment to 94 cents per share, a decrease of 7.8%.

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