ABF: 2018 Annual Results Announcement

London / UK. (abf) Food, ingredients and retail group Associated British Foods PLC (ABF) on 06 November announced the following results statement for the 52 weeks to 15 September 2018 – and further progress for the group.

Financial Headlines				Actual		Constant currency
Group revenue	GBP	15.6	billion	+1	%	+3	%
Adjusted operating profit	GBP	1,404	million	+3	%	+5	%
Adjusted profit before tax	GBP	1,373	million	+5	%
Adjusted earnings per share		134.9	pence	+6	%
Dividends per share		45.0	pence	+10	%
Gross investment of GBP 1,165 million
Net cash GBP 614 million
Statutory operating profit up 1 percent to GBP 1,344 million. Last year included the benefit of a one-time profit on the sale of businesses. Taking this into account, statutory profit before tax was down 19 percent to GBP 1,279 million and basic earnings per share down 16 percent to 127.5 pence.

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Chief Executive George Weston said: «This was another year of progress for the group. We continued to pursue the opportunities to grow our businesses with a gross investment of GBP 1.2 billion. Strong profit performances were delivered by each of Primark, Grocery, Agriculture and Ingredients. These more than offset the decline in Sugar profit which was caused primarily by low prices in the first year after the structural change in the EU sugar regime. Looking ahead, management have clear plans for further investment and for pursuing opportunities for business improvement».

Adjusted operating profit is stated before the amortisation of non-operating intangibles, profits less losses on disposal of non-current assets, transaction costs and amortisation of acquired inventory fair value adjustments. These items, together with profits less losses on the sale and closure of businesses, are excluded from adjusted profit before tax and adjusted earnings per share. Constant currency is derived by translating the 2017 results at 2018 average exchange rates.

References to operating profit in the Operating Review are based on the adjusted measure defined above. For additional information please read ABFoods’ PDF file below (16’145 KB).

20181107-ABF-Q4-FY-2018.