LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Packaging specialist DS Smith posted its half-year results to 31 October on Thursday, with an adjusted operating profit up 23% - or 9% at constant currency - to £226m.
The FTSE 250 firm said that was off the back of revenue growth of 21% to £2.36bn.

Profit before tax was up a whopping 60%, or 32% at constant currency, to £146m, while adjusted earnings per share improved 21% on a reported basis and 9% on a constant currency basis to 16.4p.

Smith's board declared an interim dividend per share of 4.6p, a 15% uplift, while its return on sales was up 20 basis points to 9.6%.

Its return on average capital employed was up 10 basis points to 15.1%.

The board said it saw organic volume growth of 2.9%, with all regions in growth and continued growth of pan-European FMCG and e-commerce customers.

During the period, it described expanding its pan-European point of sale and display capability, and it acquired and integrated businesses in the UK and Denmark.

It also opened new plant in Erlensee, Germany, and acquired P&I, a specialist corrugated display business in Portugal.

The acquisition of Gopaca corrugated packaging in Portugal was also completed, and it proposed the acquisition of Parish Manufacturing, a US bag-in-box plastics business.

"This half year has been another period of consistent delivery across the whole business," said group chief executive Miles Roberts.

"Volumes have grown as our high quality, innovative service has continued to delight our customers, particularly those who require a pan-European approach.

"This, combined with strong results from businesses acquired last year, the benefit of our global procurement platform, and the continued roll-out of performance packaging, has resulted in another period where we have delivered against all our financial KPIs."

Roberts said the business has continued to demonstrate momentum and has performed well despite the challenging market, which is a demonstration of the strength of our business model.

"Accordingly, the board remains confident about the outlook for the business and has increased the dividend by 15%."

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