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2009 performance

During 2009, the effort made by our 36,800 employees has been outstanding and has contributed to another successful year for the Group.

In 2009 we delivered another strong performance and made progress across our KPIs.

Our results

  • Turnover (£m)

  • £2,687m +10%
  • 5 year compound growth 16%
Turnover chart
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  • Underlying profit before tax (£m)*

  • £325.1m +17%
  • 5 year compound growth 18%
Underlying profit before tax chart
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  • Underlying earnings per share (p)*

  • 38.75p +17%
  • 5 year compound growth 20%
Underlying earnings per share (p)* chart
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  • Total dividend per share (p)

  • 16.8p +17%
  • 5 year compound growth 25%
Total dividend per share (p) chart
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*Excluding intangible amortisation, non-cash impact of mark to market movement on financial instruments, loss on disposal of business and exceptional costs relating to the Arch cru funds.

**Excluding 25p special dividend.

Key points

  • Steady organic growth. Major contract wins and renewals of £1bn
    (2008: £1.24bn)
  • Bid pipeline stood at £3.7bn in February 2010 (Feb 2009: £3.1bn); increasingly active market
  • Broadened our operational capability: £177.5m spent on 12 acquisitions
  • Continued underlying operating margin progression: increased by 16 basis points to 13.31% (2008: 13.15%)
  • Strong underlying free cash flow up by 28% to £280m (2008: £219m)
  • 17% dividend increase, maintaining our dividend cover of 2.3 times.

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