French spirits maker Pernod Ricard said it had hit its full-year target of around 6% organic profit growth from continuing operations, despite an ongoing slowdown in China.
Pernod, the world's second-biggest drinks group by sales after Diageo, relies on Asia for about 40% of sales and like its rivals has been exposed to a government clampdown on luxury gifts in China.
However, the owner of Mumm champagne, Absolut vodka and Martell cognac said growth in emerging markets like Malaysia and Indonesia as well as "significant" price hikes led to a 6% rise in profit from recurring operations to €2.23 billion for its financial year ending June 2013.
Meanwhile sales of Jameson Irish whiskey rose to 4.3 million cases in the past year, according to Pernod’s Irish Distillers division.
The company has sought to broaden the brand’s popularity abroad, with US sales up by more than 20% and sales to Russia and South Africa also growing significantly.
In its overall results Pernod said that it would propose a dividend of €1.64, up 4%.
The company gave no financial guidance for the current year, but its chief executive said emerging markets would be less "dynamic" in the year ahead, even as Europe was beginning to show signs of improvement.
"There will no doubt be less dynamic growth from emerging markets (this year)...But the US market remains very robust and there are some signs of stabilisation in Europe," Chief Executive Pierre Pringuet told Reuters.
The Chinese market's weakness was also expected to reverse course by the second half of 2013/2014, he added.
Asked whether Pernod could make acquisitions as capital flows return to Europe after years of crisis in the euro zone, Pringuet said the priority was to maintain the company's credit rating but that mid-sized takeovers were possible.
"Medium-sized acquisitions are entirely feasible for us...in the hundreds of millions of euros up to 1 billion," the CEO said.
