DCC considers moving main listing to London

DCC CHAIRMAN Michael Buckley has said the company is “actively monitoring” the possibility of moving its primary listing to London and switching its reporting currency to sterling.

Responding to a shareholder question at the company’s annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Mr Buckley said the listing was “a live issue”.

It is “something we are monitoring pretty actively at the moment”, he said, adding that any decision on the issue would be driven not by the impact of currency exchange rates but by the fact that most of DCC’s revenues are earned in sterling. More than 70 per cent of DCC’s revenues are generated in the UK.

DCC yesterday revised downwards its earnings forecast for the year, as milder weather affected its energy division in the first quarter of 2011.

The company said trading at DCC Energy, which represents 60 per cent of the company’s turnover, was “well behind” in the first quarter due to a combination of milder weather and public holidays in the UK. The result of this was that the company, which traditionally generates most of its earnings towards the latter half of the year, failed to reach its target of generating 15 per cent of operating profit in the first quarter.

While operating profit in June was well ahead of the previous year, trading in April and May was poor, which means the company’s half-year results will be affected.

DCC now anticipates a mid-single-digit percentage decline in its 2012 profits.

DCC’s other four divisions performed in line or ahead of expectations, with DCC’s SerCom division strongly ahead of last year, boosted by acquisitions. The company’s healthcare, environmental and food and beverage divisions all traded in line or modestly ahead of expectations.

Addressing shareholders at the agm yesterday, DCC chief executive Tommy Breen said that while the company had strong underlying growth potential, it had benefited by €17 million as a result of particularly cold winters over the past two years. “Stripping out the effect of the cold winters, the business’s underlying performance is very strong,” he told shareholders.

DCC shareholders have benefited from consistent earnings per share and dividend growth since the company listed in 1994.

The company posted a 15 per cent jump in pretax profits to €189.6 million in its 2010 financial year, boosted by the strong performance of DCC Energy.

DCC’s share price closed down 2.3 per cent yesterday at €19.00.

Earlier this week Greencore announced it would be reporting in sterling and moving its listing to the UK following the acquisition of British company Uniq.