Glanbia have announced a more than 11% rise in earnings for 2016, well ahead of analysts’ expectations.
The nutrition and dairy company earned €305m from its wholly-owned business, with revenue at its performance nutrition business rising 20% to more than €162m.
Earnings per share was up 11.2% to 87.66 cent.
This morning the company also announced the creation of Glanbia Ireland, which will be a 60/40 joint venture between Glanbia Co-Op and Glanbia Plc.
The new entity will bring Glanbia’s Irish dairy and agri-business together and will be a €1.5 billion operation.
The move will see brands like Avonmore, Premier Milk, and Kilmeaden become part of the new company.
Glanbia had discussed the sale of its consumer food brands to co-op members in 2010, however, no agreement was reached at the time.
The company said the financial strength of the Glanbia Ireland business would allow it to fund a €250m - €300m investment programme to 2020 without a requirement for supplier contributions.
The company's shares are nearly 2% higher in Dublin trade this morning.
Group MD Siobhán Talbot said she was pleased that Glanbia had a strong group-wide performance in 2016, “delivering our seventh year of double digit earnings growth coupled with strong cash conversion.
“It has been an exciting start to 2017 with a number of key strategic initiatives progressing which will shape the future direction of the Group. “
She added the initiatives announced today “demonstrate a desire to play to our strategic strengths and are aligned to our vision to be one of the world’s top performing nutrition companies”.
Commenting on the company's cashflow, Davy said Glanbia "surprised positively on cash flow, with net debt falling to €437.6m – which was some €53.9m below our own estimate.
"Versus estimates, capex was lower and working capital was an inflow (€31.9m) compared to our €15m outflow forecast.
"These were partly offset by a negative translation adjustment and associate loans."
