1st Mar 2022 11:30
(Alliance News) - Croda International PLC on Tuesday reported a record performance in 2021 with all of the speciality chemical company's businesses trading ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
Shares were down 3.4% in London on Tuesday at 7,230.00 pence each, underperforming the wider market. The FTSE 100 index was down 0.9%.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Foots said 2021 was an "outstanding year" for the Yorkshire, England-based chemicals maker.
"Our Health Care business delivered an exceptional performance as a result of the work we have done to support the global roll out of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and therapeutic drugs, and a rapidly building pipeline of non-Covid applications. This progress has been supported by further organic and inorganic investment to increase innovation and strengthen our platform for future growth," he said.
For 2021, pretax profit was GBP411.5 million, up 53% from GBP269.5 million in 2020, on revenue of GBP1.89 billion, up 36% from GBP1.39 billion.
Croda declared a 100.0p annual dividend, up 9.9% from the 91.0p paid out in 2020. The final dividend was 51.5p, up from 50.5p.
Looking ahead, Croda expects to post growth in 2022 in line with medium-term expectations, backed up by robust consumer demand. It thinks margins in the Consumer Care and Life Sciences divisions will remain strong this year in a push to increase the proportion of its sales from higher value products.
Also notes Lipid systems sales are expected to be at a similar level to 2021. Croda completed the acquisition of Avanti Polar Lipids Inc, which provides drug delivery systems, back in August 2020.
Foots added: "Our excellent strategic progress during the Covid-19 pandemic has included progressing our transition to a pure-play Consumer Care and Life Sciences company, with our agreement to sell the majority of our industrial businesses.
"As a result, Croda will now be focused on faster growth, higher return markets, positioning us to deliver more consistent sales growth and an even stronger profit margin."
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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