Diageo maintains pace of first-half profit growth

The world’s largest distiller, Diageo, has maintained its pace of profit growth in the first half as it shifted towards faster-growing emerging markets.

So-called organic operating profit rose 9 per cent to £2.03 billion (€2.37 billion) in the six months ended December 31st, the same pace of growth as in the previous financial year.

Diageo gets 42 per cent of sales from markets that include Brazil and China. Europe’s contribution hit 26 per cent.

First-half profit increased 23 per cent in Latin America and 17 per cent in Africa, while declining 3 per cent in Europe.

Majority profit comes from North America, where operating profit advanced 9 per cent.

Diageo has been on a buying spree as it looks to tap the middle classes in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where it aims to make half of its turnover by 2015. – (Bloomberg/Reuters)