- Operating profits £78.8m (2002: £86.2m)
- Pre-tax profits £74.2m (2002: £82.8m)
- Adjusted EPS 15.12p (2002: 16.15p)
- Final dividend up 16% to 4.75p (2002: 4.10p) totalling £15.5m
- Return of £85m of capital to shareholders, (25.8p per current share in issue) in addition to final dividend
- Demerger on track - key terms announced today
Countrywide Assured Group has announced its intention to demerge its Life Assurance group. On completion of the proposed demerger, the Estate Agency and Property Services group will be called Countrywide plc and the Life Assurance group Chesnara plc.
Estate Agency and Property Services group:
- Estate Agency Division profits £33.6m (2002: £40.2m), for the year following a weak first half. Record second half with profits up 15% to £28.8m (2002: £24.8m)
- Financial Services Division profits rise 107% to £21.9m (2002: £10.6m) on turnover up 24%. Record levels of mortgages arranged (exceeding £4.7 billion). Penetration rates for mortgage sales increased to 62.2% of house buying customers from 52.4% in 2002
- Surveying and Valuation Division saw yet another record year with surveys up 3% to 605,857 and profits up 11% to £31.9m (2002: £28.7m)
- Conveyancing sales up 8% but operating loss of £1.5m incurred (2002 operating profit £1.8m) owing to systems integration delays and capacity constraints
Life Assurance group:
- Life company loss of £1.6m (2002 profit £10.4m)
- Strengthening of assumptions and provisions for mortgage endowment claims and persistency negatively impacted 2003 results, but provide a strong base for surplus generation in 2004
Demerger and Return of Capital: Summary
- Proposed demerger of the Life Assurance group, subject to, inter alia, shareholder and a Court approved scheme of arrangement
- £85m return of capital to shareholders
- For every four Countrywide Assured Group shares held, shareholders will receive two Countrywide plc shares and one Chesnara plc share (plus the 2003 final dividend and return of capital)
- Documentation is expected to be posted to shareholders next week
- Dealings in new shares expected to commence 25 May 2004
- Payments in respect of return of capital and final dividend expected to be made 11 June 2004
"The Surveying and Valuation division grew to record levels, with sales lifted by increased remortgage activity while our Financial Services division arranged a record £4.7bn of mortgages as our sales teams increasingly succeeded in cross-selling financial products to our housebuying customers.
The imminent demerger of our Life company, our planned return of £85m of capital and our increased final dividend of £15.5 million demonstrate our continuing commitment to creating shareholder value.
Trading for 2004 has begun well with a record pipeline of business.”
