19th Feb 2016 07:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - Plastic and fibre products company Essentra PLC on Friday said its pretax profit was dragged lower by higher one-off, acquisition-related costs in 2015 and by the tough oil and gas environment, as its other divisions all performed well.
The FTSE 250-listed firm, which makes consumer and pharmaceutical packaging, plastic-injection moulded components and pipe protection technologies, said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December fell to GBP90.4 million from GBP99.7 million, primarily due to one-off write-offs which hit its operating margin. These mostly related to the acquisition of Clondalkin Packaging and subsequent site rationalisation measures.
The charges offset a rise in revenue to GBP1.10 billion from GBP865.7 billion a year earlier, driven by good growth in its pipe protection business. Its Distribution and Filter Products divisions both delivered increases in revenue in the year, while the Health & Personal Care Packaging division saw revenue more than double thanks to the Clondalkin deal.
Specialist Technologies revenue, however, was hurt by its exposure to the oil and gas industry, where operators are cutting costs heavily to cope with the collapse in the oil price.
Essentra will pay a final dividend of 14.4 pence per share, up from 12.6p a year earlier, pushing its total dividend for the year up to 20.7p, up 13%.
Chief Executive Colin Day said the group has made a solid start to its current strategy programme, covering its growth plans out to 2020, notwithstanding the challenging environment in the oil and gas industry.
"In an environment where economic growth is by no means well-established or uniform - notably in the oil and gas industry - we are nonetheless confident of delivering balanced profitable growth in 2016, due to our international footprint and diverse range of products and end-markets," he added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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