11th Feb 2025 09:40
(Alliance News) - Shares in PZ Cussons PLC jumped on Tuesday after the maker of Carex raised its outlook for full-year operating profit.
Manchester-based PZ Cussons, which also owns Imperial Leather and St Tropez, now expects full-year operating profit between GBP52 to GBP58 million, increased from GBP47 to GBP52 million before. The company said GBP5 million of costs related to foreign exchange losses on inter-company loans, would now be treated as an adjusting item.
Shares in the company rose 7.9% to 85.69 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
PZ Cussons reported a swing to profit in a first half that was "in line with expectations". The consumer goods firm said pretax profit amounted to GBP6.4 million in the half-year to November 30 swinging from a loss of GBP94.2 million a year prior. Its bottom line in the prior year took a hefty hit from Nigerian naira devaluation.
Adjusted pretax profit in the half-year just ended declined 24% to GBP19.8 million from GBP26.1 million.
Revenue fell 10% to GBP249.3 million from GBP277.1 million. But on a like-for-like basis, sales grew 7.1% driven by pricing in Africa and growth in UK and Indonesia. Excluding Africa LFL revenue growth was 1.6% with volume growth of 2.0%.
Chief Executive Jonathan Myers said: "Trading has been in line with expectations during the first half of our financial year and, together, three of our priority markets - the UK, Indonesia and ANZ - have delivered solid overall like for like revenue growth of 2%."
He said new product innovation, competitive brand activation and increased retail distribution have combined to deliver the "strongest performance in our UK business for three years, thanks in part to particularly successful Christmas sales for Sanctuary Spa gifting."
The CEO said the trends of the first half of the year have continued into the second half, "meaning we are on track to meet [financial 2025] profit expectations."
"Performance to the end of January has been in line with our expectations and we expect group LFL revenue growth trends to continue in the balance of the year," the company added in a statement.
While the first-half continued to be impacted by the depreciation of the naira, Myers noted the more recent stabilisation of the exchange rate and operational interventions, however, enabled the firm to sustain trading momentum in the Nigerian market whilst reducing our exposure to further currency depreciation.
Myers added that the firm is progressing with plans to "unlock value and reduce complexity". Last April, the company announced plans to sell its self-tanning brand St Tropez and explore a sale of its Africa business.
The dividend was maintained at 1.50p per share with future policy "under review".
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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