How would you spend £80mill at MAN?
Manchester confidential.
Airport generates £100m dividend
Greater Manchester councils share £20m: airport keeps £80m
£100m dividend in 2010. The whopping payout – which is more than double the amount of last year - is revealed in the firm’s latest set of accounts, covering the year to March 31, 2010.
The dividend increased from £47.3m in 2009 despite turnover and profits remaining largely the same in 2010. The firm recorded a turnover of £282m (2009: £286m) and pre-tax profits of £46m, the same as the previous year.
Of that £100m, its parent company, Manchester Airport Group Plc, will get £20m, shared between the 10 Greater Manchester Councils that own it. Manchester City Council has a 55 per cent share, which equates to £11m. The other nine borough councils will get £1m each. [/B]
The airport itself will keep £80m to reinvest in the business.
In the notes to the accounts, the directors said the group was ‘well placed’ to manage the business successfully through a number of long-term contracts and ‘considerable financial resources.’ The group is due to renegotiate its banking facilities in July 2011, and the directors said that nothing had been drawn to their attention ‘to suggest a renewal would not be forthcoming on acceptable terms.’
The turnover is broken down into aviation (£131m); retail concessions (£59m); car parking (£34m); property (£29m) and ‘other’ (£28m).
The airport employed 2,040 staff (2009: 2,145), which carried a wage bill of £50.5m (2009: £52.8m). The airport owes £195m to creditors before March 31, 2011 and £181m after that period. I is owed £152m by debtors.
The company finished the year with net assets of £808m, down slightly from £899m the previous year.
The accounts also mention a contingent liability ‘in the respect of claims that have been made to the lands tribunal...from individual property owners in respect of alleged loss of property value arising from the development and use of new and extended airport runways.’
This refers to an on-going battle between the airport and more than 330 home-owners in Knutsford and Mobberley, who are being represented by law firm Hugh James. The claimants argued their house prices had been affected by the construction of runway 2. The airport reached a settlement in July.
The three regional airports owned or controlled by Manchester Airports Group also filed accounts today. East Midlands Airport and Bournemouth International Airport both recorded profit in 2010, but Humberside Airport lost money.
Here are the financial highlights:
Bournemouth International Airport Ltd
Turnover £15.7m (2009: £16.1m)
£4.8m – aviation
£2m – car parking
£2.5m – retail
£6.3m – property
Pre-tax profit £3m (2009: £1.8m)
Net assets £62m (2009: £60.8m)
Staff 116 (2009: 118)
Wage bill £4.6m (2009: £4.7m)
East Midlands International Airport Ltd
Turnover £49.5m (2009: £58.2m)
£23.8m – aviation
£9.2m – car parking
£5.1m – retail
£9m – property
£2.1m - other
Pre-tax profit £6m (2009: £9.2m)
Net assets £221.7m (2009: £213m)
Staff 253 (2009: 272)
Wage bill £11.4m (2009: £11.5m)
Highest paid director £307,000
Humberside International Airport Ltd
Turnover £8.3m (2009: £12.7m)
£2.7m – aviation
£1m – car parking
£927,000 – retail
£380,000 – property
£3.2 - other
Pre-tax loss £1.8m (2009: £1m)
Net liabilities £5.7m (2009: £3m)
Net debt £20m
Staff 142 (2009: 149)
Wage bill £3.9m (2009: £4.2m)