9th Dec 2021 09:01
(Alliance News) - DS Smith PLC on Thursday declared an increased dividend following improvement in half-year profit and revenue.
For the six months that ended October 31, the London-based packaging company said pretax profit rose 48% to GBP175 million from GBP97 million in the same period the previous year.
DS Smith said the increased pretax profit was due to a 31% rise operating profit to GBP207 million from GBP138 million, and a GBP8 million reduction in net financing costs.
Revenue increased 16% to GBP3.36 billion from GBP2.89 billion in the same period the previous year. DS Smith cited strong demand for packaging in all its markets and higher average selling prices that reflected the recovery of paper and other input costs for the rise.
DS Smith declared an interim dividend of 4.8 pence per share in light of its strong performance, up 20% from 4.0p a year prior.
Looking forward, DS Smith issued a positive outlook for continued growth over remainder of the financial year and said it was well placed to manage its business risks despite the uncertainties in the current economic outlook.
Chief Executive Miles Roberts said: "We have built a business to benefit from the significant structural growth drivers within fibre based corrugated packaging. These benefits, combined with our scale, geographic footprint, sustainability and innovation focus, position us very well for continued volume and market share growth. Together with pricing momentum, this underpins our confidence to deliver a significant improvement in profitability during the second half of this year in line with our expectations and towards our medium-term targets."
Shares in DS Smith were up 2.3% at 389.52 pence on Thursday morning in London.
By Heather Rydings; [email protected]
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