UKX FTSE 100 Index

By Tapan Panchal

LONDON--British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (RB.LN) on Monday reported a rise in first-half pretax profit, mainly due to reduced exceptional costs, and said it expects to return to like-for-like revenue growth progressively over the second half of the year.

The maker of Dettol antiseptic liquid and Durex condoms made a pretax profit of 1.02 billion pounds ($1.32 billion) for the six months ended June 30, up from GBP697 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to GBP5.02 billion from GBP4.39 billion. On a like-for-like basis revenue for the period fell by 1%.

Reckitt, which earlier this month agreed to sell its food division to U.S. spice maker McCormick & Co. for $4.2 billion, is targeting 2% growth in full-year net revenue, down from a previous estimate of 3% growth. It has reiterated its medium-term target of moderate operating margin expansion.

The FTSE100 listed company declared an interim dividend of 66.6 pence a share, up 14%.

-Write to Tapan Panchal at tapan.panchal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 24, 2017 02:38 ET (06:38 GMT)

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