29th Jul 2015 08:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish corrugated packaging company Smurfit Kappa Group PLC on Wednesday said its pretax profit rose in the first half of 2015 on the back of slightly higher revenue and said the robust underlying conditions in the market leave it in good stead for the rest of the year.
Smurfit said its pretax profit in the first half rose by 7% to EUR243 million from EUR228 million a year earlier, as revenue increased to EUR4.0 billion from EUR3.95 billion.
The group said its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation margin is expected to improve in the second half of the year, after taking a hit in the first half from accounting changes made by the group on the consolidation of its operations in Venezuela.
Corrugated packaging volume growth for the group hit 6% in the half, with underlying growth at more than 4% in Europe, and it completed EUR189 million in acquisitions. Smurfit said it has made good progress on containerboard pricing and said strong packaging demand will underpin its push to increase prices in 2015 and 2016.
Smurfit said it would hike its interim dividend by 30% to 20 euro cents per share.
"The group is a significantly stronger business today than at any other time in its recent history, and its effective capital structure, well invested asset base and increasingly differentiated customer offering provide a strong platform to drive the business forward," said Gary McCann, Smurfit's chief executive.
"We continue to expect to deliver earnings growth year-on-year, and we remain focused on accelerating returns to shareholders through delivery against our capital allocation commitments, maintaining a progressive dividend, sustaining high-return capital expenditure and delivering opportunistic growth through accretive acquisitions," he added.
Shares in Smurfit were up 2.1% to EUR27.30 pence on Wednesday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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