LONDON (Alliance News) - Total Produce PLC Thursday said it has increased its interim dividend by 15% after reporting a rise in earnings in the first half and said it is aiming to hit the top end of its earnings guidance for the full year.
The UK-focused fresh produce provider reported a pretax profit of EUR24.2 million in the first six months of 2015, which was flat from a year earlier despite revenue rising by more than 9% to EUR1.73 billion from EUR1.58 billion.
Profit before tax, exceptional items, amortisation, fair value movements and its joint ventures rose 11.5% to EUR30.3 million from EUR27.2 million.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exceptional items came in 12% higher to EUR42.6 million from EUR38.1 million a year earlier whilst Ebita before items was up 11% to EUR33.5 million from EUR30.2 million.
Total Produce upped its interim dividend by 15% to 0.736 euro cents per share from 0.640 cents.
Earnings per share was up over 11% to 5.52 cents per share, and the company said it is aiming to hit the "top end" of its full year EPS guidance of 9.2 cents to 10.2 cents per share.
"Total Produce has delivered a very strong performance for the first half of 2015," said Chairman Carl McCann. "A stronger operational performance and recent acquisitions contributed to this earnings growth."
On a like-for-like basis, excluding the effect of those acquisitions and other divestments and currency translations, revenue was 2% higher year-on-year on the back of higher average prices, it said.
At the end of the half, Total Produce had a net debt of EUR83.9 million, a significant rise from the EUR69.1 million at the end of June 2014 and the EUR16.8 million at the end of December. The company said the increase in debt since December was due to "normal seasonal working capital outflows and higher sales".
Total Produce shares were up 1.7% to 91.52 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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