The Lemon Fool

tjh290633 wrote:http://www.investegate.co.uk/foreign--38-col-invest--frcl-/rns/final-results/201703070700086726Y/

2016 was an extraordinary year in terms of political events, stock market returns and sterling weakness. Despite the upheaval, I am delighted to report that your Company had a very strong year, achieving a total shareholder return of 23.7%. Our Net Asset Value ("NAV") total return with debt at market value rose at its strongest annual rate for over a decade, gaining 23.9%. The proposed total dividend for 2016 is 9.85 pence per share, an increase of 2.6% on the year - our forty-sixth consecutive annual rise in dividends.

These results further strengthen our long-term record of delivering growth in both capital and income for our shareholders. Over ten years the share price total return is 141%, equivalent to 9.2% per annum and over twenty years is 443%, which equates to 8.8% per annum.

and

The Directors have proposed a final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 December 2016 of 2.7p per share payable on 2 May 2017 to all shareholders on the register at close of business on 31 March 2017.

TJH

Its shares stubbornly traded at an average of over 7.5% below NAV, prompting the board to trigger its discount control mechanism and step up share buybacks, which had fallen to a ten-year low, and purchase 12.4 million shares. This did not have an immediate effect as the discount stood at 7.4% at the end of the year and remains at this level.

In the past the company has been a big buyer of its shares, repurchasing £756 million in the ten years to 2015 when it lowered its discount target from 10%. It has previously stated its intention to remove the discount altogether and for the shares to trade at 'par' or at NAV.