Results round-up

Millennium & Copthorne reported a rise in profit in the third quarter as it benefited from a weaker sterling in the aftermath of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

In the quarter to the end of September, pre-tax profit was up 27.8% to £46m, on revenue of £247m, up 17.1%. For the first nine months of the year, pre-tax profit was up 4.1% to £102m, on revenue of £665m, up 8.1%.

The hotel group said the sharp drop in the value of sterling after the 23 June referendum had a significant impact on results, adding £43m and £7m to reported revenue and profit before tax respectively for the first nine months of the year.

Group revenue per available room in reported currency was up 3.5% but down 3.2% at constant currency in the first nine months.

Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said: “Our London hotels have seen some positive benefits from leisure travellers following the EU referendum in June 2016 although the outlook for the UK economy is uncertain. We have also seen an improving trend in the regional US and growth in the New Zealand markets; and benefitted from favourable foreign exchange movements.

However, trading of our New York and Singapore hotels was disappointing and we continued to focus on improving margins. We are monitoring the performance in all our markets closely and the group's financial position remains strong. The group has a long term perspective and considers asset ownership as key to its strategy."

Ireland’s Smurfit Kappa reported that third quarter revenue increased, while the corrugated packaging company remains on track to deliver record earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year.

For the quarter ended 30 September, revenue grew 1% to €2.05bn, or 6% on a constant currency basis, compared to the same period last year, with volume growth of 3%.

Revenues in Europe decreased by €42m, driven mainly by adverse currency moves, while in the Americas revenues rose by €68m.

EBITDA increased by 6% year-on-year to €323m, or 9% on a constant currency basis, with a margin of 15.7%, which was delivered against a backdrop of higher than expected recovered fibre input costs and adverse currency movements.

Basic earnings per share was up 22% to 56.4 cents.

The return on capital employed (ROCE) climbed 16.1%, exceeding its target.

The quarter also had a free cash flow of €164m, which resulted in net debt to EBITDA reduced to 2.4 times.

Overall corrugated packaging volumes grew 3% and in Europe volumes rose 2%.

In the Americas volumes increased 17% with organic volumes up 2%, excluding Venezuela. There was an improved performance across operations, which was offset by negative currency impacts on EBITDA of about €11m during the quarter.