Group results
| 6 months to 30th September | 2004 | 2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other operating income and expenses | £1m | £147m | |
| Effective tax rate | 32% | 9% | |
| EPS - Underlying | 17.1p | 16.1p | - 5.8% |
| Dividend per share | 9.1p | 9.1p | |
| Share repurchase | £178m | £50m |
Notes
Moving on to look at some of the other important metrics for the half year.
Other operating income and expenses, the heading under which we report items not included in trading profit, was £147m. This includes £151m of accounting profit on the store disposals under our sale and leaseback transaction, and other asset disposals.
The tax rate in the first half was 9%. The rate is lower than usual due to the sale and leaseback attracting no tax charge. We continue to expect a rate of around 32% for the Group post the BHI disposal.
Underlying Earnings per Share, which excludes Other Operating Income and Expenses and related taxation, was down 5.8% at 16.1p.
We have agreed an interim dividend of 9.1p per share, the same as last year.
During Q1 we returned £50m to shareholders to complete the first £350m tranche of the share buyback programme. Given current market conditions and the ongoing process of implementing our proposed merger with Alliance Unichem, we do not expect to buy back any more shares in the current year although shareholders will receive the substantial special dividend from the proposed sale of BHI.
