Eagers Automotive Limited, Australia’s leading automotive retail group, announced on Thursday that it had delivered a statutory profit before tax for FY22 of AUD 4.422 billion and a record underlying operating profit before tax of AUD 4.092 billion.
The record financial performance was underpinned by strong demand for new and used cars, sustainable strong return on sales through a reset cost base and ongoing focus on technology-enabled productivity improvements, and the successful acquisition and integration of multi-franchised dealership groups in ACT and South Australia.
CEO Keith Thornton attributed the record full-year underlying profit to the strength of ongoing market dynamics combined with the company’s reset and more productive operating platform. He added that the record dividend, which is up 15.3% on the previous year, underlined the Board’s confidence in Eagers Automotive’s outlook for 2023 and beyond.
Eagers Automotive also reported that its new car order bank grew by 74% in 2022, representing an all-time record level, which will support future strong results. Thornton said that the industry is at an inflection point, and Eagers Automotive is in a unique position to lead the generational shift towards a lower emission future.
During the period, the company acquired a further AUD 148.3 million of property via the prudent and disciplined allocation of capital to strategic property assets. Its total property assets at December 2022 were AUD 498 million, up from AUD 483 million at 31 December 2021, excluding assets held for sale.
Looking ahead, Thornton said that Eagers Automotive is focused on several key initiatives to deliver earnings growth, including delivering top-line revenue growth associated with investments, maintaining its sustainable strong return on sales, playing a leading role in the transition to new energy and low emission vehicles, and continuing to review accretive and strategic M&A opportunities.
Eagers Automotive’s shares on the ASX closed 2.2% higher at AUD 17.69 on Thursday after the announcement of its record financial performance for FY22. The company also announced its intention to conduct an on-market share buy-back of up to 10% of issued share capital, reflecting the Board’s prudent focus on active capital management and its confidence in the company’s strong balance sheet and record available liquidity.
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