Hearing implant maker, Cochlear is making a return to paying dividends after the impact of COVID, the pandemic and social distancing rules damaged its 2020 finances.
The company raised more than $1 billion early on in the pandemic to help support itself through the huge dislocation as elective surgery shutdowns hit sales of implants hard.
That saw a loss for 2019-20 and no final dividend was paid after an interim had been distributed.
On Friday Cochlear revealed a net profit of $236.2 million for the December half, though underlying profits declined 4% in constant currency terms to $125.3 million for the half.
That was almost as much as the $238 million loss for the 2019-20 financial year reported last August.
Sales fell 1% in constant currency terms to $742.8 million.
An interim dividend of $1.15 had been declared, down from $1.60 a share interim for the six months to December 2019.
And Cochlear became one of only a handful of companies to provide guidance for the year when it said was expecting earnings to be up by around 59% by June in a range of $225 to $245 million.
That will still be less than the $276 million reported for 2018-19.
That of course depends on the COVID recovery across Cochlear’s many markets but directors believe conditions are improving.
