6th May 2016 06:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish corrugated packaging company Smurfit Kappa Group PLC on Friday said pretax profit grew 31% in the first quarter year-on-year as revenue rose on volume growth.
The Dublin-based group - which recently transferred its primary listing to London, making it a likely addition to the FTSE 100 at the next quarterly index review - said pretax profit for the quarter to the end of March was EUR128.0 million, up from EUR98.0 million a year earlier. The profit growth was driven by lower one-off charges, after Smurfit books costs in 2015 related to its Venezuelan operations.
Revenue grew 2.0% in the quarter, up to EUR2.00 billion from EUR1.96 billion, as group packaging volume growth hit 5.0% in the quarter, helped by acquisitions but backed by solid underlying growth.
European volume growth hit 2.0% in the quarter, with pricing flat against the fourth quarter of 2015, while volume growth in its Americas operations was 26%, helped by the weaker comparatives from the Venezuelan issues the year earlier and structural improvements in its US business.
"We continue to see good levels of demand for packaging across almost all of the markets in which we operate," said Chief Executive Tony Smurfit. "Assuming broad industry conditions prevail, we expect good earnings growth in 2016."
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
SKG.L