Business News
Strong operational and financial performance
Wednesday 30. July 2008 - Rexam, the global consumer packaging company, announces its results for the six months to 30 June 2008.
Record sales and underlying operating profit1 – up 30% and 47% respectively
Good organic growth in sales and underlying operating profit1 – both up 8%
Group margin up from 8.8% to 9.9%
Efficiency savings of £18m help offset inflationary costs
Underlying EPS1 up 45% to 17.0p
Continued strong beverage can volume growth in Europe and emerging markets
Plastic Packaging performing to expectations – integration and synergies on track
Move to optimise asset utilisation: 12oz beverage can capacity reduction in US
Commenting on the 2008 half year results, Leslie Van de Walle, Rexams CEO, said:
“We produced a strong operational performance in the first half of the year, delivering financial results ahead of our expectations owing to good pricing, good cost recovery and further efficiency savings including synergies. Overall we saw continued robust growth in Beverage Cans and expect further margin improvement. The enlarged Plastic Packaging business continues to make good progress. Recognising the uncertainty of the economic climate and the increasing input cost pressure, we anticipate that trading in the second half will be in line with our original expectations, giving us a strong overall performance for the year.”
Statutory results2
Six
months to
30.06.08 Six
months to
30.06.07 Change
Continuing operations:
Sales (£m) 2,191 1,688 30%
Operating profit (£m) 198 146 36%
Profit before tax (£m) 141 97 45%
Profit for the financial period (£m) 97 68 43%
Total profit for the financial period (£m) 97 135 -28%
Total basic earnings per share (pence) 15.1 22.9 -34%
Underlying business performance is continuing operations before exceptional items
Statutory results include exceptional items and, for total profit for the financial period and total basic earnings per share, include discontinued operations