Smurfit Kappa FY revenue rises, dividend hiked

Corrugated packaging group Smurfit Kappa reported a rise in full-year core earnings and revenue on Wednesday as it benefited from its capital spend programme and recent acquisitions.

In the year to the end of December, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 7% to €1.65bn while revenue ticked up more than 1% to €9.05bn. The performance was also underpinned by volume growth.

Smurfit hiked its final dividend by 12% to 80.9 cent per share.

The company said its European business continued to perform strongly, delivering an EBITDA margin of 19%. Demand growth was ahead of the market and in line with its expectations for the year, with particularly good performances in Iberia and Eastern Europe, it said.

Meanwhile, the Americas also continued to perform well, with the EBITDA margin rising to 17.5% from 15.7% in 2018. Smurfit said that its three main countries of Colombia, Mexico and the US had strong financial performances with demand in Colombia particularly strong.

Chief executive officer Tony Smurfit said 2019 had been "another period of strong delivery and performance" for the company.

"During the year, we continued to strengthen our integrated model, following the acquisition of Reparenco in 2018, and our more recent acquisitions in France, Bulgaria and Serbia. These acquisitions significantly enhance our business and further expand our geographic reach," he said.

"From a demand perspective, the year has started well and, while macro and economic risks remain, we expect another year of strong free cash flow and consistent progress against our strategic objectives."