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(Alliance News) - Origin Enterprises PLC on Tuesday said annual profit fell as increasing costs and finance expenses outpaced rising revenue, though it still raised its dividend.
In the financial year that ended July 31, the Dublin-based agronomy services firm said pretax profit fell 29% to EUR81.9 million from EUR115.5 million a year earlier.
This was despite revenue rising 4.9% to EUR2.46 billion from EUR2.34 billion, or 6.5% on a constant currency basis.
Cost of sales rose 5.1% to EUR2.12 billion from EUR1.97 billion, while finance expenses rose 23% to EUR15.0 million from EUR12.2 million.
Origin Enterprises opted to raise its total dividend for the year, however. It declared a final dividend of 13.65 euro cents per share, taking the total for its financial 2023 to 16.8 cents, up 5.0% from 16.00 cents a year earlier.
"Origin delivered a strong overall performance in declining commodity markets," said Chief Executive Officer Sean Coyle.
"We have, however, taken the difficult decision to close our Ukraine business at the end of September. This decision was taken after much deliberation, given the reduced activity levels and the market dynamics over recent years which have resulted in the business being loss making, with little evidence that the trading environment will improve."
Looking ahead, Coyle continued: "We continue to drive sustainable growth and are on track to deliver our strategic ambitions as set out in our 2022 capital markets day. We delivered a return on capital employed in [financial 2023] within our targeted range at 13% and we will continue to invest for growth across our existing operations and strengthen our earnings potential through margin accretive acquisitions."
Shares in Origin Enterprises were up 6.0% to EUR3.34 each in London on Tuesday afternoon.
By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News reporter
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