Coca-Cola HBC 1st Half Operating Profit Rises 11%
August 11 2016 - 3:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Olga Cotaga
LONDON--Coca-Cola HBC AG (CCH.LN) reported on Thursday an 11%
rise in operating profit for the first half of fiscal 2017 and said
it expects a "strong growth" in full-year currency-neutral
revenue.
The company, which bottles Coca-Cola drinks, said it expects the
adverse effect of foreign currencies on operating profit to stay at
115 million euros ($127.5 million) for the year and that it will
see higher costs in the second half of 2017.
The bottler said volumes rose 0.1% to 1 billion unit cases in
the half year, compared with a 3.8% growth last year, but said it
is "confident of volume growth for the year as a whole."
Volumes in established markets was 2.8% lower than last year due
to unseasonably cool weather. Developing markets saw a 3.5% volume
growth, the company said. In emerging markets, Nigeria, Romania and
Serbia were key drivers of the 0.5% volume growth, the company
said.
The FTSE-100 company made an operating profit of EUR220.6
million for the six months ended July 3, which is an 11% increase
on EUR199.1 million for the same period last year, despite revenue
falling 3.4% to EUR3.04 billion from EUR3.15 billion on adverse
currency movements. The forex exchange-neutral net sales revenue
grew by 2.4% to EUR3.04 million from EUR2.97 million.
In June, the company set new medium-term goals and one aim was
to achieve a 4% to 5% average annual revenue growth rate.
Analysts at Citi said the company is "well-positioned" after the
U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union because "carbonates are
quite resilient...to a weaker economic environment" and because of
a strong balance sheet. The bank had a 'buy' rating for Coca-Cola
HBC.
Shares closed on Wednesday at 1571 pence.
Write to Olga Cotaga at olga.cotaga@wsj.com, Twitter
@OlgaCotaga
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 11, 2016 03:18 ET (07:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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