Kingfisher Regulatory News (KGF)

KINGFISHER PLC

The proposed final dividend for the year ended 31 January 2017, subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting, is 7.15p per share.

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on 21 March 2017 and signed on its behalf by:

Véronique Laury Karen Witts

Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer

Notes

1 General information

Kingfisher plc ('the Company'), its subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates (together 'the Group') supply home improvement products and services through a network of retail stores and other channels, located mainly in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

The Company is incorporated in the United Kingdom and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The address of its registered office is 3 Sheldon Square, Paddington, London W2 6PX.

2 Basis of preparation

The consolidated financial statements of the Company, its subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates are made up to 31 January. The current financial year is the calendar year ended 31 January 2017 ('the year' or '2016/17'). The comparative financial year is the calendar year ended 31 January 2016 ('the prior year' or '2015/16').

The directors of Kingfisher plc, having made appropriate enquiries, consider that adequate resources exist for the Group to continue in operational existence and that, therefore, it is appropriate to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 January 2017.

The condensed financial information, which comprises the consolidated income statement, consolidated statement of comprehensive income, consolidated statement of changes in equity, consolidated balance sheet, consolidated cash flow statement and related notes do not constitute statutory financial statements for the year ended 31 January 2017, but are derived from those statements. Statutory financial statements for 2015/16 have been filed with the Registrar of Companies and those for 2016/17 will be filed in due course. The Group's auditors have reported on both years' accounts; their reports were unqualified and did not contain statements under Section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006. 

The condensed financial information has been abridged from the 2016/17 statutory financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union ('IFRS') and those parts of the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under IFRS and therefore the consolidated financial statements comply with Article 4 of the EU IAS legislation. The consolidated income statement and related notes represent results for continuing operations, there being no discontinued operations in the years presented. The condensed financial information has been prepared under the historical cost convention, as modified by the use of valuations for certain financial instruments, share-based payments and post-employment benefits.

Accounting policies

The accounting policies adopted are consistent with those of the annual financial statements for the year ended 31 January 2016, as described in note 2 of those financial statements.

Principal rates of exchange against Sterling

Use of non-GAAP measures

In the reporting of financial information, the Group uses certain measures that are not required under IFRS, the generally accepted accounting principles ('GAAP') under which the Group reports. Kingfisher believes that adjusted sales, retail profit, underlying pre-tax profit, adjusted pre-tax profit, effective tax rate, underlying earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share provide additional useful information on performance and trends to shareholders. These and other non-GAAP measures, such as net cash, are used by Kingfisher for internal performance analysis and incentive compensation arrangements for employees. The terms 'retail profit', 'exceptional items', 'transformation costs', 'underlying', 'adjusted', 'effective tax rate' and 'net cash' are not defined terms under IFRS and may therefore not be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other companies. They are not intended to be a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP measures.

Retail profit is defined as continuing operating profit before central costs, the Group's share of interest and tax of joint ventures and associates, transformation costs, exceptional items and amortisation of acquisition intangibles. It includes the sustainable benefits of the Group's transformation programme. 2015/16 comparatives exclude B&Q China's operating results. Central costs principally comprise the costs of the Group's head office before transformation costs.

The separate reporting of non-recurring exceptional items, which are presented as exceptional within their relevant income statement category, helps provide an indication of the Group's ongoing business performance. The principal items which are included as exceptional items are:

· non-trading items included in operating profit such as profits and losses on the disposal, closure or impairment of subsidiaries, joint ventures, associates and investments which do not form part of the Group's trading activities;

· profits and losses on the disposal of properties and impairment losses on non-operational assets; and

· the costs of significant restructuring, including certain restructuring costs of the Group's five-year transformation programme launched in 2016/17, and incremental acquisition integration costs.

The term 'adjusted' refers to the relevant measure being reported for continuing operations excluding exceptional items, financing fair value remeasurements, amortisation of acquisition intangibles, related tax items and prior year tax items (including the impact of changes in tax rates on deferred tax). 2015/16 comparatives exclude B&Q China's operating results. Financing fair value remeasurements represent changes in the fair value of financing derivatives, excluding interest accruals, offset by fair value adjustments to the carrying amount of borrowings and other hedged items under fair value hedge relationships. Financing derivatives are those that relate to hedged items of a financing nature.

The term 'underlying' refers to the relevant adjusted measure being reported before non-exceptional transformation costs. Non-exceptional transformation costs represent the short-term additional costs that arise only as a result of the transformation programme launched in 2016/17, which either because of their nature or the length of the period over which they are incurred are not considered as exceptional items. These costs principally relate to the unified and unique offer range implementation and the digital strategic initiative. The separate reporting of such costs (in addition to exceptional items) helps provide an indication of the Group's underlying business performance, which includes the sustainable benefits of the transformation programme.

The effective tax rate is calculated as continuing income tax expense excluding tax on exceptional items and adjustments in respect of prior years and the impact of changes in tax rates on deferred tax, divided by continuing profit before taxation excluding exceptional items.

Net cash comprises cash and cash equivalents and short-term deposits less borrowings and financing derivatives (excluding accrued interest). It excludes balances classified as assets and liabilities held for sale.

3 Segmental analysis

Income statement

The operating segments disclosed above are based on the information reported internally to the Board of Directors and Group Executive, representing the geographical areas in which the Group operates. The Group only has one business segment being the supply of home improvement products and services.

The 'Other International' segment consists of Poland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Romania and the joint venture Koçtaş in Turkey. Poland has been shown separately due to its significance.

Central costs principally comprise the costs of the Group's head office before transformation costs.

4 Exceptional items

Current year exceptional items include a £21m net credit (2015/16: £305m charge) relating to the B&Q store closure programme in the UK and the closure of loss-making stores in France and other countries in continental Europe. In addition, a £6m exceptional interest charge relating to the reduction in discount rate used to measure the overall UK restructuring provision was recognised.

The net credit principally arises due to savings on B&Q store exit costs as compared with the original restructuring provisions recognised, and the reversal of a restructuring provision following the announcement that one of the B&Q stores originally earmarked for closure would remain open, offset mainly by store asset impairments relating to the closure of additional loss-making stores in continental Europe.

Transformation exceptional costs of £5m have been recorded in the year relating to the initial costs of setting up the Group's new offer and supply chain organisation.

A profit of £3m was recognised on disposal of the Group's remaining 30% stake in B&Q China - refer to note 12 for further information. In the prior year a profit of £143m was recorded on disposal of the Group's controlling 70% stake.

In the prior year, an exceptional loss of £18m was recorded relating to the impairment of goodwill and certain stores in the Brico Dépôt Romania business.

5 Net finance costs

The £7m charge relating to the unwinding of discount on provisions includes a £6m exceptional charge relating to the reduction in discount rate used to measure the overall UK restructuring provision.

6 Income tax expense

The effective tax rate on profit before exceptional items and excluding prior year tax adjustments and the impact of changes in tax rates on deferred tax is 26% (2015/16: 26%). Exceptional tax items for the year amount to a charge of £6m, of which a £1m credit relates to prior year items. In 2015/16 exceptional tax items amounted to a credit of £67m, of which a £1m credit was relating to prior year items.

7 Earnings per share

Basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing the profit for the year attributable to equity shareholders of the Company by the weighted average number of shares in issue during the year, excluding those held in the Employee Share Ownership Plan Trust ('ESOP') which for the purpose of this calculation are treated as cancelled.

For diluted earnings per share, the weighted average number of shares is adjusted to assume conversion of all dilutive potential ordinary shares. These represent share options granted to employees where both the exercise price is less than the average market price of the Company's shares during the year and any related performance conditions have been met.

8 Dividends

The proposed final dividend for the year ended 31 January 2017 of 7.15p per share is subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting and has not been included as a liability in the financial statements.

 9 Post-employment benefits

The assumptions used in calculating the costs and obligations of the Group's defined benefit pension schemes are set by the Directors after consultation with independent professionally qualified actuaries. The assumptions are based on the conditions at the time and changes in these assumptions can lead to significant movements in the estimated obligations, as illustrated in the sensitivity analysis.

A key assumption in valuing the pension obligations is the discount rate. Accounting standards require this to be set based on market yields on high quality corporate bonds at the balance sheet date. The UK scheme discount rate is derived using a single equivalent discount rate approach, based on the yields available on a portfolio of high-quality Sterling corporate bonds with the same duration as that of the scheme liabilities.

The principal financial assumptions for the UK scheme are as follows:

For the UK scheme, the mortality assumptions used have been selected with regard to the characteristics and experience of the membership of the scheme from time to time in connection with triennial funding valuations. The assumptions for life expectancy of UK scheme members are as follows:

The following sensitivity analysis for the UK scheme shows the estimated impact on the obligation resulting from changes to key actuarial assumptions, whilst holding all other assumptions constant.

10 Cash generated by operations

11 Net cash

12 Disposals

On 5 July 2016, the Group disposed of its remaining 30% interest in the B&Q China business to Wumei Holdings Inc. for a gross consideration of £67m, being the Sterling equivalent of RMB 582m. The profit on disposal of £3m is analysed as follows:

In the prior year, the Group received gross proceeds of £140m (before disposal costs of £6m) and recognised a profit on disposal of £143m in respect of Wumei Holdings Inc. acquiring a controlling 70% stake in the B&Q China business. In the prior year, the Group also completed the sale of a property company for proceeds of £18m and a profit of £16m, along with the sale of a UK company for proceeds of £nil and a loss of £3m.