River Island pays £100m dividend as sales boom

RIVER Island, the fashion retailer owned by the billionaire Lewis family, has paid a £100m dividend – despite only making £149.1m profit, latest accounts show, writes

RupertSteiner.

The chain, which has 248 shops in the UK and is also in Europe, Africa and South America, has also been formally valued and is worth £1.6bn.

River Island had a strong year boosted by online sales, international expansion, and childrenswear sales, bucking the downward trend suffered by some high street rivals.

Pre-tax profit for River Island Holdings rose to £149.1m for the 52 weeks to December 27 from £88m. Sales increased to £925.8m from £838.6m.

Documents filed at Companies House also showed that the ‘directors approved the payment of a dividend of £100m’.

However, a spokesman insisted that this had been reinvested into the group and was not paid to the family.

The business was part of a larger holding company – L51N – owned by founder Bernard Lewis and his family, which also invests in hotels, property and banking.

During the year the family sold its stake in the business to another firm within the group for £1.6bn, placing it into a separate subsidiary. This is the first time the privately owned chain had been formally valued for years.

A spokesman said the sale was an ‘internal housekeeping thing’. A note in the accounts said L51N is ‘no longer engaged in retailing, manufacture, wholesaling and franchising of clothing’.