DUBLIN (Reuters) – Smurfit Kappa’s core profit jumped by 50% year-on-year in the first half of 2022, which it said on Wednesday reflected recent capital investment in its production facilities and price increases for customers.
After a year of record profit in 2021, revenue growth of 33% pushed earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) at Europe’s largest paper packaging producer up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.22 billion) in the first half.
Smurfit, whose customers include Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestle, increased its interim dividend by 8% to 31.6 euro cents per share.
“In Smurfit Kappa, we are very confident about our future prospects,” the Irish group’s chief executive Tony Smurfit said in a statement.
“Inevitably, with the current global issues that surround us there are greater uncertainties than we have seen for some time. Nevertheless, we continue to see many opportunities for growth.”
($1 = 0.9863 euros)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Louise Heavens)
