Financial Highlights

Financial highlights

	2018	2017	% change	% change at constant currency
Revenue	£728.6m	£690.2m	5.6%	6.7%
Headline operating profit1	£138.3m	£123.9m	12%	13%
Return on sales1	19.0%	18.0%
Headline profit before taxation1	£136.4m	£121.5m	12%	13%
Free cash flow1	£97.4m	£83.0m	17%
Basic headline earnings per share2	55.9p	49.2p	14%
Ordinary dividend per share	19.0p	17.4p	9%
Special dividend per share	20.0p	25.0p
Return on capital employed1	20.5%	19.3%

Statutory results

	2018	2017
Operating profit	£134.1m	£119.4m
Profit before taxation	£132.2m	£117.0m
Basic earnings per share	54.2p	51.0p

Operational highlights

• Revenue growth of 6.7% at constant currency
  • Specialist Technologies delivered double digit growth of 12%
  • Emerging Markets growth of 21%
  • Civil aviation revenues up 8%
• 12% growth in headline operating profit to £138.3m
• Return on sales improvement to 19.0% (2017: 18.0%)
• ROCE¹ increased to 20.5% (2017: 19.3%)
• Free cash flow of £97.4m (2017: £83.0m), after expansionary capex of £44.1m
• Headline operating cash conversion at 93%¹
• Full year ordinary dividend 19.0p, up 9%
• Special dividend of 20.0p

1. The headline performance measures represent the statutory results excluding certain non operational items. These are deemed alternative performance measures under the European Securities and Markets Authority guidelines. Please refer to note 1 to the financial statements for a reconciliation to the IFRS equivalent.
2. A detailed EPS reconciliation is provided in note 8.