23rd Feb 2016 07:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - Specialty chemicals company Croda International PLC on Tuesday reported higher pretax profit and revenue for 2015 despite taking a currency translation hit, as it posted underlying growth across the business and said it will pay a special dividend thanks to its strong cash generation.
Croda's pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP252.3 million, up from GBP229.4 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 2.9% to GBP1.08 billion from GBP1.05 billion. In constant currencies, revenue would have increased 4.2%.
The group said it saw good underlying sales growths in all its product sectors and regional operations, particularly in newly-launched product line. Personal Care products performed well and Life Sciences showed excellent growth, it said.
Croda also said it will pay a final dividend of 38.0 pence per share, taking its total dividend for 2015 up to 69.0p from 65.5p. In addition, Croda said it will pay a 100.0p special dividend to shareholders, which will be combined with a share consolidation. The return is being made due to the strong cash generation the group has shown over the course of 2015 and will return it to its targeted leverage range, it said.
"2015 has been a year of strong progress for Croda. A relentless focus on innovation, improved proximity to our customers and investment in fast growth markets has delivered record reported sales and pre-tax profit, together with a special dividend to shareholders," said Steve Foots, Croda's chief executive.
"Looking ahead, whilst we expect market conditions to remain challenging, our strong innovation pipeline and the benefits of our customer-led investment in capacity mean that we are confident of delivering continued progress in 2016," he added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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