KERRY'S REPORTS HIGHER 2011 PROFITS AND REVENUES - Food and ingredients group Kerry has reported adjusted pre-tax profits of just under €450m for the year to the end of December, an almost 11% improvement on the €405m reported the previous year. Revenues rose by 6.4% to €5.3 billion from €4.9 billion despite the weak consumer confidence in many markets and significant raw material and input cost inflation. Shareholders can look forward to a total dividend for the year of 32.2 cent - up almost 12% on 2010.
Kerry's chief executive Stan McCarthy says the company's growth is coming from its international markets and its strategy has been on growing those markets in the last few years. He says the outlook for the company is promising and says that it takes many years of investment in new markets before growth is in place. On Ireland, he says the consumer is facing a tough environment. However, the performance of the holiday season took the company by surprise and the company did much better than had been anticipated. He says that Irish consumers continue to seek out value and says the company is offering good promotional offers.
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NEW REPORT POINTS TO STRONG EXPORT GROWTH - HSBC Bank has confidently predicted that once this period of global economic contraction ends, international businesses and trade activity will grow and expand more quickly than previously expected. A new report says that Irish trade will grow by more than 75% in the next decade and a half - driven in large part by chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Alan Duffy of HSBC in Ireland says that Ireland has every reason to be optimistic about our level of exports. He says the Irish economy is the second most open for trade after Hong Kong and predicts that China will replace the UK as Europe's sixth largest trading partner in Europe. He says the timing of China's vice president Xi Jinping's recent visit to Ireland is most opportune. He says that exports of chemicals and pharmaceuticals will overtake technology exports and agri-nutrition exports set to score very high.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Eircom's parent company says the telecoms company's financial performance in the six months to the end of December was well below that for the same period a year earlier. Earnings were also below what the company was budgeting for, and it says the ability of cost controls to compensate for falling revenue is diminishing.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is worth $1.3239 and 83.53 pence sterling.
