Smufit pretax profits jump as it names new CFO

Pretax profits at packaging group Smurfit Kappa rose 58 per cent in 2015 to €599 million from €378 million a year earlier, as it announced the appointment of Ken Bowles as its new chief financial officer.

Smurfit also said it is considering transferring its UK listing arrangements from standard to premium while retaining its Irish listing.

The Irish-listed group said fourth quarter pretax profits jumped 230 per cent from €58 million to €191 million.

Revenue was largely unchanged on an annual basis at €8.1 billion and was down 1 per cent in the fourth quarter of the year to €2.08 billion.

Ebitda was up 2 per cent compared to fiscal 2014 to €1.18 billion from €1.16 billion a year earlier and rose 11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 to €326 million from €295 million.

The company reported an operating profit that was 1 per cent higher last year at €780 million and up 8 per cent in the final three months of 2015 to €229 million.

Smurfit said packaging full-year volume growth was up 6 per cent with underlying growth of 3 per cent, excluding acquisitions. During 2013 the group invested over €380 million in acquisitions, it said.

The company is proposed a 20 per cent increase in its final dividend to 48 cent per share. This, combined with an interim dividend of 20 cent per share paid in October, this brings the total dividend to 68 cent, a 23 per cent increase year-on-year.

"Having established a strong platform for growth over the past few years, we expect to deliver good earnings growth in 2016. While this will, to some extent, be influenced by the broader macro-economic environment, we are confident our current investment initiatives, our geographic diversity, our integrated business model and our strong free cash flow generation positions us well for 2016 and beyond," said chief executive Tony Smurfit.

In a separate announcement the group named Ken Bowles as the successor to Ian Curley, who is to step down as group chief finance officer and director at the end of March. Mr Bowles. Mr Bolwes is currently group finance controller, having been appointed to the role in March 2010. MR Bowles has been with Smurfit since 1994 and has held a number of positions including head of compliance and head of tax.