Royal Mail Shares: Stockholders to Receive £133m

Royal Mail shareholders are set to receive £133m in dividends for 2013 after the recently privatised delivery company reported a near doubling of first half year profits.

According to the group's financial results, Britain's newly privatised Royal Mail said ongoing cost cuts, a one-off value-added-tax credit, and rising parcel revenue bolstered its cashpile.

"Our first half financial performance was in line with our expectations of delivering low single digit revenue growth and margin expansion," said Moya Greene, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Mail.

"The combination of increasing earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and moderating investment spend underpins value creation for our shareholders."

Royal Mail revealed that operating profit after transformation costs had jumped to £283m (€338m, $459m) for the six months to 29 September, from £144m in the same period a year ago.

Its one-off VAT credit of £35m also helped bolster its profits by 96.5%.

Royal Mail Shares

Royal Mail's controversial flotation on the London Stock Exchange has seen its share price soar well ahead of the government's 330p offer price. On 19 November it was at the 550p mark, amid accusations the government blundered by seriously undervaluing the 500-year-old communications firm.

One leading City of London analyst, David Jones of IG, told IBTimes UK that Royal Mail shares could potentially hit double the 330p offer price because demand has remained so high.

Employees of Royal Mail were given 10% of shares, while the rest were offered to retail and institutional investors.

There was a £750 minimum investment set for retail buyers. There were 93,000 members of the public who had applied for the minimum amount of shares and received them in full. Those who applied for more than £10,000 worth did not receive any shares.