Compass Group to return £400m to shareholders despite Europe woes Revenues for the 12 months to September 30 were 6.8pc ahead at £16.9bn, buoyed by strong growth in North America and emerging markets, where more schools, hospitals and businesses are turning to outsourcing companies to run everything from catering, to security and gardening services. But he stressed North America and emerging markets accounted for the lion's share of group revenues. "Two thirds or nearly 70pc of the group is performing brilliantly," Mr Cousins said. Compass, whose clients include Chelsea Football Club, proposed a final dividend of 14.1p a share, to be paid on February 25, lifting the total dividend for the year by 10.4pc to 21.3p. The £400m share buy-back, which will start in 2013, is on top of a previous £500m programme, announced last year. Compass has returned £3.3bn to shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs since 2006. Mr Cousins said there were still plenty of growth opportunities across the world, even though like-for-like volume growth last year was just 0.1pc, dragged down by Europe and Japan. Outsourcing is not well penetrated. If you take healthcare and education, globally it is only about 25pc to 30pc penetrated," Mr Cousins said. The pipeline in the US is very strong and we are also seeing exciting trends in the emerging markets.