9 December 2021
DS SMITH PLC – 2021/22 HALF YEAR RESULTS
Strong H1 results underpinning momentum
|
6 months to 31 October 2021 Continuing operations |
|
Change (reported) |
Change (constant currency) |
|
Revenue |
£3,362m |
+16% |
+22% |
|
Adjusted operating profit(1) |
£276m |
+20% |
+26% |
|
Profit before tax |
£175m |
+80% |
+88% |
|
Adjusted basic EPS(1) |
13.7p |
+27% |
+33% |
|
Statutory basic EPS |
9.8p |
+81% |
+92% |
|
Interim dividend per share |
4.8p |
+20% |
+20% |
|
Return on sales(4) |
8.2% |
+20bps |
+30bps |
|
ROACE(5) |
9.4% |
+70bps |
+60bps |
|
See notes to the financial table below |
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Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive, said:
“We are continuing to benefit from a very dynamic market with demand for packaging for different retail solutions evolving rapidly and COP26 intensifying the desire for sustainable packaging solutions for the circular economy. Our leadership in these areas has contributed to record volumes with particularly strong growth in the US and Southern Europe regions, where we have invested recently, as well as with our multi-national FMCG customers.
In a challenging operating environment, I am pleased to see good progress. Our supply chains have remained secure and the significant increases in input costs have been mitigated by effective hedging of energy cost, our long term supplier agreements and raising packaging prices. Combined with strong volume growth this has significantly increased our profit with continuing good progress recovering from the impacts of Covid-19. Strong cash generation has returned our financial leverage to within our medium-term target.
We have built a business to benefit from the significant structural growth drivers within fibre based corrugated packaging. These benefits, combined with our scale, geographic footprint, sustainability and innovation focus, position us very well for continued volume and market share growth. Together with pricing momentum, this underpins our confidence to deliver a significant improvement in profitability during the second half of this year in line with our expectations and towards our medium-term targets.”
Highlights
- Record corrugated box volume growth of 9.4% vs H1 2020/21; 8.8% (2) LTM
- Strong pricing mitigating significant input cost pressures
- Good US momentum; +64% adjusted operating profit growth
- Good free cash flow of £188m driving leverage to 1.9x net debt/EBITDA
- Continued leadership in the circular economy and sustainability
- Investing for growth with innovation and increasing packaging capacity
– 2 new state of the art facilities on track
- Positive outlook for continued growth over remainder of the financial year