Scentre Group (ASX: SCG) shares are all over the show today following the company's release of its full-year results. The Scentre share price opened lower this morning at $2.83 before popping up to $2.92. This was followed by another stint in the red before rising to its current level (at the time of writing) of $2.88, up 0.17% for the day so far.
Here's how the Westfield operator performed for the 12 month period ended 31 December 2020 (FY20).
Summary of Scentre's 2020 results
Scentre reported a statutory loss for FY20 totalling $3.7 billion compared to an FY19 statutory profit of $1.8 billion.
The company noted that its property valuation for FY20 dropped by $4.3 billion.
Revenue for FY20 was $2.2 billion which represented a 17.4% fall compared to FY19.
Scentre posted an operating profit of $763.4 million for the period. The business advised that, for the six months ended 31 December 2020, operating profit was 11.6% higher than that of the six months ended 30 June 2020. However, this still fell below the $1.3 billion in operating profit reported for FY19.
The group reported a gross cash inflow of $2.4 billion and collected $2.1 billion in gross rent collections.
In further results impacting the Scentre share price, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was $1.4 billion for FY20 compared to $1.9 billion in FY19.
As of 31 December 2020, the company's liquidity was $6.9 billion.
Sentre's FY20 dividend is 7 cents per share.
CEO comments
Reflecting on the annual results, Sentre Group CEO Peter Allen said:
We operate a business and brand that are important to our customers and essential to the community. Our business fundamentals remain strong and our strategy, focused on the customer, positions the Group for long-term growth…
Whilst uncertainty remains in 2021, subject to no material change in conditions, the Group expects to distribute at least 14.00 cents per security for 2021. The distribution is expected to continue to grow in future years. The Group plans to retain earnings to cover operating and leasing capital expenditure, fund strategic initiatives and reduce net debt.
Scentre share price snapshot
Scentre Group owns and operates 42 Westfield Living Centres. Of these, 37 are located in Australia and five are in New Zealand. Over the past year, the Scentre share price has fallen by nearly 22%.
Based on the current Scentre share price, the company has a market capitalisation of around $14 billion with 5.2 billion shares outstanding.
