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What does the letter "c" mean with a number in an annual report (UK)

Personal Finance & Money Asked by Siva Senthil on October 6, 2021

I had a question when reviewing an annual report of a company Wood PLC. In their report they have used the letter "c" in lowercase after different types of numbers.

E.g., basic EPS is reported as "(34.1)c". I do gather that rounded brackets mean loss. But what does the letter "c" mean there? The columns is reported in $m.

Further ahead, a lower case "c" is used in many contexts, e.g.,

  1. After a number like the one stated above for Basic EPS "(34.1)c".

  2. With $ symbol

    Leveraged flexible model to take early and decisive action to protect
    margin; improved operational utilisation and delivered c$230m overhead
    savings with an exceptional cost to achieve of c$100m

    I had initially assumed with $ symbol it might be Canadian dollar, but shouldn’t it be upper case "C" then?

  3. Ahead of a %. Something like this –

    Order book down c17% on 2019 reflecting macro conditions and discerning bidder approach

What does the letter "c" mean in all these contexts?

Are there different meanings for different contexts here or does it mean the same thing across all these contexts (number, dollar, and percentage)?

One Answer

It appears that "c" is used in two ways in this press release:

  • When the "c" comes after the number, it means "cents". For example, a basic EPS of "(34.1)c" means a deficit of 34.1 cents. This can be confirmed by looking at page 22 in the annual report, where it explicitly says that the basic EPS is "(34.1) cents".

  • When the "c" comes before the number, it means "circa" (i.e. "approximately"). Notice how all the dollar amounts that begin with "c$" are all nice round numbers. As for "c17%", refer to page 22 of the annual report, where it says that the order book decreased by 17.4%. From all this evidence, we can reasonably conclude that "c" means "circa" when it comes before the number.

Correct answer by Flux on October 6, 2021

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