CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Woolworths Limited (WOW.AX) reported that its NPAT attributable to equity holders of the parent from continuing operations for the half-year ended 31 December 2017 rose 14.7 percent to A$902 million from A$786 million in the prior year. Basic earnings per share were 69.7 cents, higher than 61.3 cents reported last year.
NPAT attributable to equity holders of the parent entity was A$969 million versus A$704 million in the prior year.
Total group sales increased to A$32.27 billion from A$31.97 billion in the prior year.
Woolworths Group Board has announced a dividend of 43 cents per share, a 26.5% increase on the prior year.
Looking ahead, Brad Banducci, Woolworths Group CEO, said: 'The emphasis on transforming our business will continue in the second half and into FY19. Our goal is to deliver a consistently good experience for our customers and team and leverage end-to-end process redesign and technology to improve our underlying productivity.'
'We will continue to focus on delivering against the BIG W turnaround plan and expect a better second half result than the prior year with the FY18 loss before interest and tax currently expected to be $80 - $120 million.
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