Collective profit haul for UK plc near doubles

0 The oil and mining sectors were found to have made a significant contribution to profit growth

UK plc profits jumped 86 per cent to £210.8 billion in the year to June, extended the longest period of earnings growth since the initial recovery following the financial crisis, new figures reveal.

Publishing its new Profit Watch UK report, online retail stockbroker The Share Centre noted that collective revenues leapt 13.6 per cent year-on-year, while companies expanded their margins.

All business sectors saw higher revenues, and most saw higher profits, with the oil

and mining sectors making a significant contribution to growth, today’s report notes.

The Share Centre said the profit increase had been exaggerated by a very large one-off profit British American Tobacco made acquiring Reynolds American, but even without that, they rose by 66 per cent.

Higher oil and metal prices have made a particularly large contribution to the increase in revenues, though growth has been spread across a wide range of industries.