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Inchape warned the challenging auto market would continue reporting a flat profit on weakness in Chile and Hong Kong amid civil unrest, while a stronger yurt hurt demand in Australia. The company also confirmed that Stefan Bomhard's would leave Inchcape on 30 June.
The company also announced a new £150m buyback to be completed within the next 12 months.
For 2019, pre-tax profit rose to £326.3 from £350.6m as revenue increased 1.3% to £9.4, with its distribution business accounting for 91% of trading profits.
'Our businesses in Europe reported a strong performance and we saw underlying resilience in Australasia, and Asia growth despite the headwinds in Singapore and Hong Kong, offset by the impact of a contraction in the Chilean market,' the company said.
'The supply constraints experienced in Australia and Ethiopia over the first half eased materially in the second half, improving our underlying performance,' it added.
The company recommended a final ordinary dividend of 17.9p per share , taking the total dividend for the year to an unchanged 26.8p a share.
'We expect profits to be down modestly year on year and the challenging market dynamics to continue through 2020, particularly in Singapore, Hong Kong and Chile, although we are encouraged by the outlook for our European businesses,'Inchape said.
'Whilst we also anticipate a gross £25m AUD/JPY headwind over the year in Australasia we expect to offset this partially through mitigation factors which should reduce the net headwind to £15m on profits. Profit attributable to the announced disposals will reduce trading profit by £18m in 2020,' it added.