DCC Regulatory News (DCC)

14 November 2016

DCC, the international sales, marketing, distribution and business support services group, today announced its results for the six months ended 30 September 2016.

· Very strong first half performance with Group operating profit increasing by 33.3% (up 26.5% on a constant currency basis) to £117.8 million, with all divisions recording growth on the prior year.

· Adjusted earnings per share up 31.1% (24.7% ahead on a constant currency basis) to 92.1 pence.

· Interim dividend increased by 12.5% to 37.17 pence per share.

· Continued very strong cash flow performance.

· The Group continues to be very active from a development perspective and, including those acquisitions announced today, has committed £181 million in acquisition spend in the period.

· As separately announced today, DCC Energy has agreed to acquire Gaz Européen, a leading French natural gas retail and marketing business, for an initial enterprise value of €110 million (£96 million). In addition, DCC Healthcare has agreed to acquire Medisource, a pharmaceutical procurement, sales and marketing business in Ireland for an initial enterprise value of €32 million (£27 million). The acquisition of Dansk Fuels in Denmark by DCC Energy, announced on 23 March 2016, was completed ahead of schedule.

· The Group expects that both operating profit and adjusted earnings per share for the year ending 31 March 2017 will be significantly ahead of the prior year and ahead of current market consensus expectations.

 1 Excluding net exceptionals and amortisation of intangible assets

Commenting on the results, Tommy Breen, Chief Executive, said:

"I am very pleased to report that the first half of the year has been another very active and successful period for DCC. The results reflect continued execution of our strategy to grow the business organically, deliver a very strong cash flow performance and redeploy capital at attractive rates of return. The Group continues to have the ambition and capacity for further development and importantly, as DCC increases in scale and geographic reach, also has the opportunity to build substantial market positions in its chosen sectors. The Group expects that both operating profit and adjusted earnings per share for the year ending 31 March 2017 will be significantly ahead of the prior year and ahead of current market consensus expectations."

Presentation of results and dial-in / webcast facility

There will be a presentation of these results to analysts and fund managers at 9.00 am today in the London Stock Exchange. The slides for this presentation can be downloaded from DCC's website, www.dcc.ie.

There will also be audio conference access to, and a live webcast of, the presentation. The access details for the presentation are:

Ireland: 1800 937 656

UK / International: +44 (0) 203 427 1916

Passcode: 7675960

Webcast Link: http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/uoim6u9i 

This report, the webcast of the presentation and further information on DCC is available at www.dcc.ie.

For reference, please contact:

Group Results

A summary of the Group's results for the six months ended 30 September 2016 is as follows:

Group revenue

Overall, Group revenue increased by 10.5% (5.8% ahead on a constant currency basis) to £5.6 billion.

Volumes in DCC Energy increased by 13.3% to 6.6 billion litres, driven principally by acquisitions completed during the prior year. On an organic basis volumes were modestly ahead of the prior year, with good growth in Retail & Fuelcard volumes and continuing organic growth in LPG volumes, particularly with industrial and commercial customers and oil to LPG conversions. Reflecting lower oil prices, DCC Energy's revenue increased by 12.5% (up 7.3% on a constant currency basis) with average selling prices per litre reducing by 5.4% on a constant currency basis.

Revenue excluding DCC Energy increased by 5.1% (up 1.8% on a constant currency basis) to £1.5 billion.

Group operating profit

Group operating profit increased by 33.3% to £117.8 million (26.5% ahead on a constant currency basis), in the seasonally less significant first half. The average sterling/euro translation rate for the six months ended 30 September 2016 of 1.2364 was 11.1% weaker than the average of 1.3902 in the comparative period. Approximately one third of the constant currency operating profit growth was organic.

Operating profit in DCC Energy, the Group's largest division, was 43.8% ahead of the prior year (33.1% ahead on a constant currency basis), driven principally by the two large acquisitions in France completed in the prior year, which continue to perform strongly. The division also recorded strong organic profit growth in its LPG and Retail & Fuelcard businesses.

Operating profit in DCC Healthcare was 7.0% ahead of the prior year (7.7% ahead on a constant currency basis). The division again benefited from another strong performance in DCC Health & Beauty Solutions.

Operating profit in DCC Technology increased by 31.9% (27.5% ahead on a constant currency basis) in the seasonally less significant first half. The UK business performed in line with expectations and recorded good organic profit growth, assisted by cost reductions implemented during the prior year.

DCC Environmental generated excellent organic growth, with operating profit increasing to £10.7 million, 26.7% ahead of the prior year.

Finance costs (net)

Net finance costs increased to £16.6 million (2015: £14.6 million) primarily due to the non-cash partial unwind of discounted acquisition related liabilities acquired in the Butagaz transaction. The underlying finance costs of the Group were broadly in line with the prior year as they are largely driven by the level of the Group's gross private placement debt, which remained largely unchanged. Average net debt during the period was £262 million compared to £60 million during the six months ended 30 September 2015.

Profit before net exceptional items, amortisation of intangible assets and tax

Profit before net exceptional items, amortisation of intangible assets and tax increased by 37.0% (30.0% ahead on a constant currency basis) to £101.4 million.

Net exceptional charge and amortisation of intangible assets

The Group incurred a net exceptional charge before tax of £2.5 million in the first six months of the year. The net charge principally reflects acquisition and restructuring costs, offset somewhat by a gain in respect of the IAS 39 treatment of the Group's private placement debt and related hedging instruments.

Acquisition related costs amounted to £1.4 million and restructuring costs amounted to £2.3 million. Acquisition costs include the professional fees and tax costs (such as stamp duty) relating to the evaluation and completion of acquisition opportunities.

Most of the Group's debt has been raised in the US private placement market and swapped, using long term interest, currency and cross currency interest rate derivatives, to both fixed and floating rate sterling and euro. The level of ineffectiveness calculated under IAS 39 on the fair value and cash flow hedge relationships relating to fixed rate debt, together with gains or losses arising from marking to market swaps not designated as hedges, offset by foreign exchange translation gains or losses on the related fixed rate debt, is charged or credited as an exceptional item. In the six months ended 30 September 2016, this amounted to an exceptional gain of £1.9 million. The exceptional gains and losses on the Group's private placement debt and related hedging instruments will net to zero on a cumulative basis over their term.

The remaining exceptional charge of £0.7 million principally represents the impairment in value of freehold properties which are no longer in use.

The charge for the amortisation of acquisition related intangible assets increased to £18.3 million from £11.8 million in the prior year, with the increase principally reflecting the substantial acquisitions completed in the prior year.

Profit before tax

Profit before tax increased by 53.7% to £80.6 million.

Taxation

The effective tax rate for the Group in the first half of the year of 17.5% is based on the anticipated mix of profits for the full year. This rate compares to a full year effective tax rate in the prior year of 16.0%. The increase is primarily due to an increase in the proportion of profits generated in Continental Europe. 

Adjusted earnings per share

Adjusted earnings per share increased by 31.1% (24.7% ahead on a constant currency basis) to 92.1 pence.

The Board has decided to pay an interim dividend of 37.17 pence per share, which represents a 12.5% increase on the prior year interim dividend of 33.04 pence per share. This dividend will be paid on 12 December 2016 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 25 November 2016.

As with its operating profit, the Group's operating cash flow is significantly weighted towards the second half of the year. The cash flow of the Group for the six months ended 30 September 2016 can be summarised as follows:

Operating cash flow in the six months ended 30 September 2016 of £141.0 million compares to £120.7 million in the prior year. Working capital increased by £17.0 million over the six month period from 31 March 2016, reflecting seasonal requirements, although on a like for like basis the value of working capital was £25.0 million lower than that at 30 September 2015. As a result, overall working capital days at 30 September 2016 improved on the prior year by 0.6 days to a negative 2.9 days sales.

Acquisition and capital expenditure committed

Committed acquisition and capital expenditure in the current period amounted to £240.3 million as follows:

Acquisition activity

Committed acquisition expenditure amounted to £180.5 million.

DCC Energy

Gaz Européen

As announced separately today, DCC Energy has agreed to acquire Gaz Européen Holdings SAS ("Gaz Européen"), a natural gas retail and marketing business which supplies business and public sector customers in France. DCC has agreed to acquire 97% of the share capital of Gaz Européen on completion, based on an initial enterprise value of €110 million (£96 million). The remaining shares, which are held by members of Gaz Européen's management team, will be acquired based on Gaz Européen's results for the three years ending 31 March 2021, 2022 and 2023. All of the consideration will be satisfied in cash. The acquisition is conditional, inter alia, on clearance from the French Competition Authority and is expected to complete in the first calendar quarter of 2017.

Gaz Européen was founded in 2005, when the French natural gas market was first deregulated and opened to competition. The company is a specialist retailer of natural gas and focuses on supplying energy management companies, apartment blocks (with collective heating systems), public authorities and the service sector in France. In its financial year ended 31 December 2015, the company supplied c. 5.1 TWh of natural gas (equivalent to approximately 390,000 tonnes of LPG) and currently supplies c. 10,000 sites. The company is headquartered in Paris and employs 31 staff; it has an experienced and ambitious management team with a track record of delivering strong growth. In its financial year ended 31 December 2015, Gaz Européen generated revenue of €205 million (£178 million) and normalised operating profit of €15.7 million (£13.7 million).

DCC Energy has, for some time, been developing its presence in natural gas organically in selected geographies as it believes that there is a significant opportunity to leverage its sales and marketing expertise, customer reach and brand recognition in the LPG and oil distribution markets into complementary adjacencies, including the natural gas sector. Gaz Européen will be DCC Energy's first major acquisition in natural gas and will complement Butagaz's leading position in LPG. One of the key strengths identified during the acquisition of Butagaz was its brand recognition amongst French gas consumers generally. The combination of Butagaz's marketing and brand strength and Gaz Européen's expertise in the natural gas market will provide an excellent platform for growth in the French natural gas market.

Dansk Fuels

In the prior financial year, DCC agreed to acquire Dansk Fuels, a commercial, aviation and retail fuels business in Denmark, formerly owned by Shell. Following receipt of competition clearance from the European Commission the acquisition was completed, ahead of schedule, on 31 October 2016.

Dansk Fuels comprises Shell's previous commercial and aviation distribution business in Denmark and a retail petrol station network of 139 sites (comprising 95 manned and 44 unmanned sites) together with contracts to supply 66 dealers. DCC has entered into a long-term brand partnership with Shell to operate the network under the Shell brand. The transaction will involve a total investment by DCC of approximately DKK300 million (£35 million). The business will be merged with DCC's existing oil distribution business in Denmark and will leverage DCC Energy's recently developed retail operating platform. The acquired business will have total incremental volumes of approximately 0.9 billion litres and is expected to generate an initial return on invested capital commensurate with DCC Energy's existing returns.

DCC Healthcare

Medisource

In November 2016 DCC Healthcare strengthened its position in the procurement, sales and marketing of pharmaceutical products in Ireland through its agreement to acquire Medisource Ireland Limited ("Medisource") for an initial enterprise valuation of €31.5 million (£27.4 million). The acquisition, which is subject to competition clearance, is expected to complete in the first calendar quarter of 2017.

Medisource is a specialist in the procurement and sale of Exempt Medicinal Products ("EMPs"). EMPs are pharmaceutical products which are imported into a market with the authorisation of the relevant regulatory authority (the Health Products Regulatory Authority in Ireland), in order to meet requirements of specific patients where no suitable licenced product is available in that market. The products are typically licenced in another jurisdiction. Medisource has a market leadership position in EMPs in Ireland based on excellent customer service and a strong network of international suppliers. The acquisition complements DCC Vital's current pharma product offering, strengthens DCC Vital's access to the hospital and retail pharmacy channel and will provide further insight into potential pharma product development opportunities. DCC Healthcare expects to generate a return on its investment in Medisource in line with the divisional return on capital employed in its first full year of ownership.

DCC Technology

Medium

In November 2016, DCC Technology acquired Medium (U.K.) Limited ("Medium"), a distributor of professional audio visual equipment to resellers in the UK. Medium, which partners with a number of leading brands in the market including CTouch, LG, NEC and Samsung, is complementary to DCC Technology's developing position in professional audio visual in the UK market. The consideration for the acquisition was based on an enterprise valuation of £8.3 million and was satisfied in cash at completion.

Hammer

As announced on 14 October 2016, DCC Technology has agreed to acquire Hammer Consolidated Holdings Limited ("Hammer"), a specialist distributor of server and storage solutions to resellers in the UK and Continental Europe. Employing 165 people and based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, Hammer distributes products for a range of leading suppliers and also provides product design and build solutions tailored to the requirements of customers in specific industries. The business is complementary to DCC Technology's existing server and storage business and will add almost 1,000 reseller customers. In its most recent financial year Hammer recorded sales of £155.0 million and operating profit of £6.3 million. The acquisition is based on an initial enterprise value of £38.3 million and is structured as an initial payment at completion, followed by earn out payments over three years based on Hammer's future trading results. The acquisition, which is subject to competition clearance from the European Commission, is expected to complete by the end of December 2016.

Total cash spend on acquisitions in the six months ended 30 September 2016

The total cash spend on acquisitions in the six months ended 30 September 2016 was £32.8 million. This included the payment of deferred and contingent acquisition consideration previously provided of £26.2 million and the completion of a number of small acquisitions for a total consideration of £6.6 million.

Capital expenditure

Net capital expenditure for the six months of £59.8 million (2015: £51.3 million) compares to a depreciation charge of £42.9 million (2015: £32.5 million).

The construction of DCC Technology's new, purpose built, 450,000 sq.ft. UK national distribution centre in the north of England is progressing well and the relocation to the new facility will take place on a staged basis, beginning towards the end of the current financial year.

Financial strength

An integral part of the Group's strategy is the maintenance of a strong and liquid balance sheet to enable it to take advantage of development opportunities as they arise. At 30 September 2016, the Group had net debt of £112 million, total equity of £1.4 billion, cash resources, net of overdrafts, of £1.0 billion and a further £400 million of undrawn committed debt facilities. The Group's outstanding term debt at 30 September 2016 had an average maturity of 5.8 years. Substantially all of the Group's debt has been raised in the US Private Placement market with an average credit margin of 1.69% over floating Euribor/Libor.

Outlook

The Group expects that both operating profit and adjusted earnings per share for the year ending 31 March 2017 will be significantly ahead of the prior year and ahead of current market consensus expectations.

Performance Review - Divisional Analysis

DCC Energy had an excellent first half of the financial year with operating profit increasing by 43.8% to £76.0 million, benefiting from acquisitions completed in the prior year and very strong performances from its LPG and Retail & Fuel Card businesses. DCC Energy sold 6.6 billion litres of product, an increase of 13.3% over the prior year. Volumes were 0.4% ahead on a like-for-like basis.

The LPG business had an excellent first half, with volumes 38.3% ahead of the prior year and 1.3% ahead on an organic basis. The business continued to drive sales growth in the commercial and industrial sector and also benefited from oil to LPG conversions.

Butagaz has continued to perform very strongly since acquisition in September 2015 and will be significantly enhanced by the acquisition of Gaz Européen, which was announced separately today. Gaz Européen is a specialist retailer of natural gas to business customers, principally co-ownership housing, in France. In its financial year ended 31 December 2015 the company supplied c. 5.1 TWh of natural gas (equivalent to approximately 390,000 tonnes of LPG) and currently supplies c. 10,000 sites. In recent years DCC Energy has developed modest natural gas businesses organically in a number of European markets. Gaz Européen will be DCC Energy's first major acquisition in natural gas and will complement Butagaz's leading position in LPG in France.

The Retail & Fuel Card business achieved an excellent result with good organic volume growth in existing markets, complemented by a strong performance in the Esso retail petrol station business in France acquired in June 2015. The business in Sweden also performed strongly and the scale of the Retail business was further increased through the acquisition of the Shell retail petrol station network in Denmark, which completed recently. DCC Energy now operates 838 retail sites across five countries and is well positioned to leverage its operating platform to drive further growth. The Fuel Card business again recorded strong organic growth and continued to grow its market share in Britain.

The Oil business experienced more challenging conditions in Britain; however the business in Denmark performed strongly, particularly in the agricultural sector, where it benefited from the acquisition of the DLG business in the prior year. The Danish business was further expanded through the recent completion of the acquisition of Shell's commercial and aviation fuels business. The Oil business continues to make good progress in expanding its activities into adjacent areas such as lubricants and aviation fuels.

DCC Energy now has leadership positions in 10 countries across Europe in its chosen sectors of LPG, Retail & Fuel Card and Oil. DCC Energy continues to be well positioned to grow its business in both existing and new geographies, particularly in light of the continuing divestment programmes of the major oil and gas companies.

DCC Healthcare recorded a good performance in the first half of the financial year, generating operating profit growth of 7.0%, approximately half of which was organic. DCC Vital performed satisfactorily, growing its profits despite the trading headwind of weaker sterling. DCC Health & Beauty Solutions continued its track record of very strong organic profit growth and benefited from the contribution from Design Plus, which has performed well since its acquisition in September 2015.

DCC Vital, which is focused on the sales, marketing and distribution of pharmaceuticals and medical devices across all channels of the healthcare market in Britain and Ireland, recorded a satisfactory performance. The first half results reflect the actions taken in the prior year to streamline its product portfolio and activities, as it continues to increase its focus on the sales and marketing of its own products. This streamlining included the reconfiguration and consolidation of its warehousing and distribution activities in Britain and the business incurred some additional cost as part of this process. Although margins were impacted somewhat due to sterling weakness, DCC Vital generated good sales growth in the GP and hospital sectors in Britain, especially in disposable products used by GPs, hospital injectable pharmaceuticals and in its Skintact medical products range, which holds a market leadership position in electrodes and diathermy consumables.

In Ireland, the business generated good sales and profit growth across its product portfolio, particularly in hospital pharmaceuticals. The proposed acquisition of Medisource, announced today, will further enhance DCC Vital's position in the procurement, sales and marketing of pharmaceuticals in Ireland.

DCC Health & Beauty Solutions, which provides outsourced solutions to international nutrition and beauty brand owners, again generated very strong organic operating profit growth. In the nutritional sector, the business benefited from its increasing focus on and its technical expertise in developing and producing more complex, higher margin products and from good cost control. The integration of Design Plus, the market leader in Britain in sachet filling for health and beauty brand owners, has extended DCC Health & Beauty Solutions' service offering to brand owners, provided access to new customers and opened up a range of additional growth opportunities, including in the US market. DCC Health & Beauty Solutions is continuing to invest in its high quality, GMP certified, manufacturing and packing facilities in Britain to expand capacity to meet increasing demand for its services and to enhance its operational capability and efficiency.

DCC Technology, which trades as Exertis, achieved strong growth in the first half of the financial year, reflecting good organic profit growth and the benefit of the CUC acquisition completed in December 2015.

The business in the UK delivered very strong growth, despite continued weak market conditions in the computing and smartphone market, as the business achieved growth in areas such as professional audio visual, supplies, and smart home technologies. The growth in these areas, together with the benefit of cost reductions implemented in the prior year, resulted in an improvement in operating margin.

The UK business has continued to invest in the infrastructure and technologies that will drive and support future growth. The business has signed new suppliers to take advantage of the burgeoning market for virtual and augmented reality, expanded its capability in wireless networking and, most significantly, recently announced the acquisition of Hammer, which will materially enhance DCC Technology's position in the server and storage market and provide an excellent platform to further develop its enterprise solutions business. The acquisition is expected to complete before the end of the calendar year. In addition, the new national distribution centre in Lancashire will be commissioned on schedule in early 2017.

The business in Continental Europe achieved strong growth. In France, the CUC business, acquired in December 2015, achieved good organic profit growth, although the retail business was impacted by weak demand and margin pressure. The business in the Nordics achieved excellent organic profit growth, reflecting continued development of its professional audio visual capability and of its retail offering in both Sweden and Norway.

In Ireland, DCC Technology achieved strong growth, reflecting good business development activity, particularly in services for large mobile operators and retailers, as well as growth in security and networking products.

Over the past year, DCC Technology has developed a presence in the United Arab Emirates, initially servicing airport retail stores and more recently broadening its footprint into general retail stores in the Gulf region. Although modest, the business has developed quickly and contributed to the organic profit growth achieved.

The Supply Chain Services business traded in line with expectations in the first half of the year.

DCC Technology is well positioned to benefit from new consumer and enterprise technologies and to expand its service portfolio, while driving operational efficiencies.

DCC Environmental delivered an excellent performance in the first half of the financial year and increased its operating profit by 26.7% to £10.7 million, continuing the trend of improved profitability and returns on capital employed in recent years. The growth in operating profit, all of which was organic, was broadly based and reflects good business development activity and the continuing focus on operating efficiency.

In Britain, the business performed strongly and benefited from a very strong result in hazardous waste, where the business has continued to expand its service offering, particularly in waste oil recovery and services to the water industry. The non-hazardous business also increased its profits, whilst continuing to invest in process improvement and efficiency measures.

The Irish business delivered an excellent performance as it grew its market share in its core market and also further developed its capabilities in adjacent hazardous and organic waste services.

This announcement contains some forward-looking statements that represent DCC's expectations for its business, based on current expectations about future events, which by their nature involve risk and uncertainty. DCC believes that its expectations and assumptions with respect to these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however because they involve risk and uncertainty as to future circumstances, which are in many cases beyond DCC's control, actual results or performance may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The Board of DCC is responsible for the Group's risk management and internal control systems, which are designed to identify, manage and mitigate potential material risks to the achievement of the Group's strategic and business objectives. The Board has approved a Risk Management Policy which sets out delegated responsibilities and procedures for the management of risk across the Group.

The principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group in the short to medium term, as set out on pages 15 to 17 of the 2016 Annual Report (together with the principal mitigation measures), continue to be the principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group for the remaining six months of the financial year.

This is not an exhaustive statement of all relevant risks and uncertainties. Matters which are not currently known to the Board or events which the Board considers to be of low likelihood could emerge and give rise to material consequences. The mitigation measures that are maintained in relation to these risks are designed to provide a reasonable and not an absolute level of protection against the impact of the events in question.

Group Income Statement

Group Statement of Comprehensive Income

Group Balance Sheet

Group Statement of Changes in Equity

Group Cash Flow Statement

Notes to the Condensed Financial Statements

for the six months ended 30 September 2016

1. Basis of Preparation

The Group condensed interim financial statements which should be read in conjunction with the annual financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2016 have been prepared in accordance with the Transparency (Directive 2004/109/EC) Regulations 2007, the related Transparency rules of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority and in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34, Interim Financial Reporting (IAS 34) as adopted by the European Union.

The preparation of the interim financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the application of policies and reported amounts of certain assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses together with disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis.

These condensed interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 September 2016 and the comparative figures for the six months ended 30 September 2015 are unaudited and have not been reviewed by the Auditors. The summary financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2016 represent an abbreviated version of the Group's full accounts for that year, on which the Auditors issued an unqualified audit report and which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies.

2. Accounting Policies

The accounting policies and methods of computation adopted in the preparation of the Group condensed interim financial statements are consistent with those applied in the Annual Report for the financial year ended 31 March 2016 and are described in those financial statements on pages 185 to 192.

The Group has adopted the following amendments to existing standards during the period which did not result in a material change to the Group's consolidated financial statements:

· Annual Improvements 2012-2014 Cycle;

· Amendments to IAS 1 Disclosure Initiative;

· Amendments to IFRS 11 Accounting for Acquisitions of Interests in Joint Operations; and

· Amendments to IAS 16 and IAS 38 Clarification of Acceptable Methods of Depreciation and Amortisation.

There were a number of other amendments to existing standards which became effective for the Group for the first time from 1 April 2016. None of these had a material impact on the Group.

3. Going Concern

Having reassessed the principal risks facing the Group (as detailed on pages 15 to 17 of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2016), the Directors believe that the Group is well placed to manage these risks successfully.

The Directors have a reasonable expectation that DCC plc, and the Group as a whole, has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, a period of not less than twelve months from the date of this report. For this reason, the Directors continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the condensed interim financial statements.

4. Reporting Currency

The Group's financial statements are presented in sterling, denoted by the symbol '£'. Results and cash flows of operations based in non-sterling countries have been translated into sterling at average rates for the period, and the related balance sheets have been translated at the rates of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date. The principal exchange rates used for translation of results and balance sheets into sterling were as follows: