Results round-up

Glencore held out the prospect of a return to dividend payments in 2016 as management promised to focus on delivering even lower levels of net funding and debt by the end of the year than previously indicated and provided investors with an update on its asset disposal programme.

Operating profits at the half-year stage in terms of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation declined by 13% to $4.02bn, while net income was by off 66% to $300m.

In parallel, capital expenditures were more than halved to $1.57bn.

Chief Ivan Glasenberg said the company "remained mindful" that underlying markets continue to be volatile.

Nonetheless, Glasenberg was confident the firm could achieve even lower than previously indicated net funding and net debt levels by the end of this year.

"We remain confident and focussed on achieving even lower than previously indicated net funding and net debt levels by the end of this year," Glasenberg said in a statement.

Significantly, the commodity trader´s finance chief held out the prospect of a return to dividend payments in 2016.

The company´s gearing expressed as the ratio between its net debt to adjusted operating profits (adjusted EBITDA) fell from 2.98 at the end of 2015 to 2.91 as of 30 June, while interest cover (adjusted EBITDA/net interest) declined from 6.24 to 5.41.

Shares in WPP rallied on Wednesday after the advertising giant reported better-than-expected headline pre-tax profit, revenue and organic sales growth for the first half.

Headline pre-tax profit was up 15.8% to £690m, or 11.7% at constant currency, surpassing consensus expectations of £675m.

Meanwhile, reported revenue rose 11.9% to £6.5bn, which was above consensus of £6bn, boosted by a weaker pound.

The company said it saw like-for-like sales growth of 3.8%, which was a significant improvement over the first quarter growth rate of 3.2% and ahead of expectations of around 3.2% growth.

However, reported profits attributable to share owners fell by 56.6% to £246m, while reported pre-tax profit declined 40% to £425m, reflecting the impact of net exceptional writedowns of £122m. This was principally on the investment in comScore, in comparison to net exceptional gains of £203m the year before.

Return on equity for the 12-month period to the end of June was down slightly to 15.5% from 15.9%, reflecting the post-Brexit impact of a weaker pound on the group’s assets.

WPP said on Wednesday that it now expected revenue growth for the full year of “well over 3%”, which was an improvement on a previous estimate of “over 3%”.