Hollywood Bowl has upped its dividend ratio after the firm completed another successful year of growth.
The Hemel Hempstead-based bowling business said its board had decided to increase the pay-out ratio for its ordinary dividend to 55% from 50% of adjusted profit after tax, resulting in a final 2023 dividend of 8.54p as well as a special dividend of 2.73p.
Sales for the year to end September rose 16.2% to £216 million, while profit after tax contracted slightly to £34 million which the firm put down to a one-off VAT rebate from HMRC in the previous year.
CEO Stephen Burns said: “We Feel very confident about next year but last year as good as it could have been from bowling from a leisure perspective as it didn’t stop raining during the school holiday period.”
Earlier this month, rival bowling centre operator Ten Entertainment became the latest firm to delist from the London stock market after it agreed a £287 million takeover by US private equity firm Trive Capital.
The ten-pin bowling firm, which runs 52 sites across the UK, told shareholders its board was recommending the deal which will see the Texas-based fund buy the business for 412.5p per share in cash, a significant premium on the stock’s trading price prior to the announcement.
Burns said Hollywood Bowl had not received any formal takeover offers but said: “We’re a public company, we’re for sale every day so there’s nothing stopping anybody making an offer.
“Across the whole of the London Stock Exchange, lots of firms are undervalued it is an endemic problem.”
He added that Hollywood would initiate a share buyback scheme to improve the firm’s valuation.
Hollywood Bowl shares rose 1.2% to 286p. They are up more than 20% since the start of the year.
