Business News
Rexam Year End Results 2008
Friday 20. February 2009 - Resilient performance in tough environment
Rexam, the global consumer packaging company and the worlds leading beverage can maker, announces its results for the full year 2008.
Underlying performance1 2008 2007 Change
Continuing operations2
Sales £4,618m £3,611m 28%
Underlying operating profit £466m £354m 32%
Underlying profit before tax £328m £245m 34%
Underlying earnings per share 35.3p 28.0p 26%
Dividends per share 21.0p 20.0p 5%
Key highlights
Record sales and underlying operating profit up 28% and 32% respectively
Organic3 sales up 7% driven by price increases and volume growth in beverage cans
Organic3 operating profit up 3%, with Group margin up to 10.1%
Tougher second half offset by favourable foreign exchange translation
Efficiency savings of £35m
Net debt at £2.6bn, increase in second half mainly due to foreign exchange translation: underlying interest cover 3.5 times
Dividend increase of 5%
Actively managing cost base and focusing on cash generation in 2009
Commenting on the 2008 results, Leslie Van de Walle, Rexams Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Rexam is a resilient business as proved by this set of results, but we are not immune to the global economic crisis, and trading in the second half of 2008 weakened as market conditions deteriorated. However, the company is flexible and able to adapt to new, more challenging circumstances without compromising our vision of being the worlds leading consumer packaging company.
“We recognise that times are uncertain and that it is difficult to predict how the economic downturn will affect our trading in 2009 but we remain focused on generating cash and managing costs to underpin the progress we made in 2008.”
Statutory results4 2008 2007 Change
Continuing operations2
Sales £4,618m £3,611m 28%
Operating profit £380m £371m 2%
Profit before tax £240m £260m (8)%
Total profit for year £171m £240m (29)%
Total basic earnings per share 26.8p 39.0p (31)%
Notes
Underlying business performance is continuing operations before exceptional items, the amortisation of certain acquired intangible assets and fair value changes on financing derivatives.
Continuing operations include ongoing operations and businesses that have been disposed or are held for sale in either 2008 or 2007 (“disposed businesses”) but exclude discontinued operations.
Organic change is the year on year change on continuing operations (excluding disposed businesses) and at constant currency.
Statutory results profits and earnings include exceptional items, the amortisation of certain acquired intangible assets, fair value changes on financing derivatives and discontinued operations.