Retail billionaire and owner of Arcadia, Philip Green has paid himself a £1.2 billion dividend, which is more than three times Arcadia’s annual operating profits, reports the FT.
Green, who controls 92 percent of the Arcadia Group shares, will pay the group’s shareholders a total of £1.3 billion in dividends. HBOS, which helped him finance the £850 million takeover of Arcadia in 2002, will receive the remainder of the payout, which will be financed from the group operational debt which increased from £265.8 billion last year to £1.35 billion this August.
Arcadia saw its operating profits before goodwill increase 10 percent to £326.1 million on sales of £1.77 billion. Like for like sales rose 1.3 percent in the year ended 27 August. The group said that the retail climate on the high street remained “challenging and extremely competitive”. It revealed a rise in turnover of 3 percent since August, compared with the same period last year.
“This performance has given us the confidence to both pay the dividend and, more importantly, continue the high level of investment in the business,” Green said in a statement.