Five year summary


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Profit by division
  2000
£m
2001
£m
2002
£m
2003
£m
2004
£m
Continuing operations:
Argos Retail Group
Argos 139 169 212 241 298
Homebase 2 102
Financial Services (6) (18) (13) (5)
Wehkamp18 18 19 20 21
157 181 213 250 416
Experian
Experian North America145 156 155 171 180
Experian International56 61 69 85 102
201 217 224 256 282
Burberry22 69 90 117 141
South Africa46 31 31 32 44
Central activities (including GGF and gusco.com)18 (3) (7) (16) (20)
444 495 551 639 863
Discontinued operations:
Argos Retail Group34 36 42 35
Property34 30 25 26 18
 68 66 67 61 18
 512 561 618 700 881
Interest expense(64) (74) (67) (58) (54)
Profit before amortisation of goodwill, exceptional items and taxation448 487 552 642 827
Amortisation of goodwill(79) (92) (99) (143) (193)
Exceptional items11 (85) (72) (90) 58
Profit before taxation380 310 380 409 692
Tax on profit on ordinary activities(105) (106) (122) (141) (192)
Profit after taxation275 204 258 268 500
Equity minority interests (1) (17) (27)
Profit for the financial year275 204 257 251 473
 

Balance sheet
  £m £m £m £m £m
Tangible and intangible fixed assets (other than goodwill) 974 916 1,039 1,221 1,197
Fixed asset investments 264 297 310 338 151
Working capital 1,994 1,669 1,416 1,264 753
Trading assets 3,232 2,882 2,765 2,823 2,101
Goodwill 1,438 1,516 1,422 2,436 2,338
Provision for loss on disposal of home shopping and Reality businesses (210)
Dividends and taxation (273) (221) (257) (286) (363)
Transaction consideration (42) (22) (37) 131
Net borrowings (including non-recourse borrowings) (1,931) (1,712) (1,485) (2,086) (1,200)
Net assets 2,466 2,423 2,423 2,640 3,007


Earnings and dividends
  2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Earnings per share 27.4p 20.3p 25.7p 25.1p 47.4p
Basic earnings per share before amortisation of goodwill and exceptional items 34.5p 37.2p 41.7p 47.8p 60.7p
Dividend per share 20.6p 21.0p 21.7p 23.3p 27.0p
Dividend cover 1.67 1.77 1.92 2.05 2.25
Interest cover 8.0 7.6 9.3 12.0 16.3