Irish food producer Kerry Group (KGYA) counted the Americas among the best performing regions for its all-important ingredients and flavours division in the first half. That's because demand for 'clean label', low-calorie, low-sodium foods in the US helped it win a number of new contracts, driving underlying sales for the region up 5 per cent.
Kerry also maintained solid volume growth in the Asia Pacific region, despite weaker market conditions, so that regional sales rose 12 per cent. Overall, however, consumer spending in developed markets remained constrained, while currency headwinds and political unrest disrupted trading elsewhere. That left sales across the ingredients and food division up about 5 per cent at €2.13bn (£1.70bn). Trading profit rose at a similar rate to €251m, driven in part by fatter margins.
In the consumer goods division, however, both sales and profit dipped as UK and Irish shoppers continued to rein in spending. That constrained the group-level growth in underlying sales to just 3 per cent, with a parallel increase in trading profit. The jump in reported pre-tax profit was largely down to €74m of one-off costs incurred last year. Adjust for that and profit grew by 5 per cent.
Broker Investec Securities expects adjusted pre-tax profit of €586m for the full year, giving EPS of 278¢, up from 258¢ in 2013.
| KERRY GROUP (KYGA) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 5,466¢ | MARKET VALUE: | €9.6bn | |
| TOUCH: | 5,462-5,470¢ | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 5,790¢ | LOW: 4,297¢ |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.8% | PE RATIO: | 59 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 1,174¢* | NET DEBT: | 54% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (€bn) | Pre-tax profit (€m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2.95 | 137 | 67 | 12.0 |
| 2014 | 2.89 | 228 | 111 | 13.5 |
| % change | -2 | +66 | +66 | +13 |
Ex-div: 15 Oct Payment: 14 Nov £1=€1.26 *Includes intangible assets of €2.42bn, or 1,378¢ a share | ||||
