Smurfit Kappa’s pre-tax profits rose 58%
Irish packaging giant Smurfit Kappa has reported a 58% jump in its pre-tax profits while revenue in the firm remained mostly static, rising to €8.1bn. The firm’s pre-tax profits rose to €599m from €378m.
The company said it was increasing its final dividend by 20% to 48 cent per share.
Combined with the interim dividend of 20 cent per share, this will bring the total dividend to 68 cent, up 23% on the previous year.
During the year, the company invested over €380m in acquisitions to strengthen and diversify its geographic reach and drive earnings.
“Having established a strong platform for growth over the past few years, we expect to deliver good earnings growth in 2016,” commented the company’s chief executive Tony Smurfit.
“While this will, to some extent, be influenced by the broader macro-economic environment, we are confident our current investment initiatives, our geographic diversity, our integrated business model and our strong free cash flow generation positions us well for 2016 and beyond,” Mr Smurfit added.
Smurfit Kappa said its European packaging business performed well during 2015, supported by strong fundamentals and positive containerboard prices.
