Marks and Spencer Posts Increase In FY15 Profit, Announces Buy Back Plan

reported a rise in its pretax profit for 2015 and announced a 150 million pound share repurchase program. The retailer reported a pretax profit of GBP600 million for the year, versus GBP580.4 million, in the year-ago period. Underlying pre-tax profit surged 6.1 percent to 661.2 million pounds versus 622.9 million pounds. Underlying profit attributable to owners of the parent for the year jumped to 541.2 million pounds, or 32.9 pence per share, compared to 520.0 million pounds, or 31.9 pence per share. Its revenue rose to GBP10.311 billion from GBP10.309 billion. Food sales rose 3.4 percent, while general merchandise sales slipped 2.5 percent. M&S.com sales dropped 2.0 percent year-over-year. Its operating profit jumped to 701.3 million pounds for the year, versus 694.5 million pounds in the year-ago period. The company's board recommended a final dividend of 11.6 pence per share. "We continued to control costs and capital expenditure tightly, resulting in significantly improved free cash flow," Chief Executive Marc Bolland said. Marks and Spencer shares slipped 0.03 percent to close at $18.16 yesterday.