Results round-up
Coca-Cola HBC reported full year earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of €621m, a rise of 20% on net sales revenue of £6.5bn, up 4.9%.
Revenue was helped by the stronger Russian rouble. On a constant currency basis, revenue per case was up 3.6%, with positive contributions from price, category and package mix, Coca-Cola said.Profit before tax rose to €301.7m from €266.9m.
"Volume growth of 2.2% was broad based across the segments and improved as the year progressed, with the second half delivering better volume expansion than the first half," it added.
"Strong in-market execution, supported by an improving economic environment, resulted in excellent top-line growth and margin expansion in 2017. We are particularly pleased to have achieved revenue growth through a balanced delivery of both volume and price/mix," the company said.
It also reported a "rather unusual" currency tailwind worth €7.8m, given its operations in emerging companies, due to the rouble in 2017.
Free cash flow of €425.9m was generated during the year while capital expenditure as a percentage of revenue was up by 50 basis points to 5.8%.
"We have increased our investments in revenue-generating opportunities and in particular in markets with high growth potential such as Nigeria, Russia and Romania," Coca-Cola said.
Comparable net profit of €449.7m and comparable earnings per share of €1.233 were 27.7% and 26.9% higher than in the prior year, respectively. Reported net profit and reported basic earnings per share were €426.m and €1.168.
The full year dividend was lifted by 23% to €0.54 a share.
Credit Suisse raised its forecast for current full year organic revenue to increase by 5.5% from 4.3%.
However, the bank it expected this to be largely offset by foreign exchange translations, and left EPS estimates unchanged at €1.37. It also lowered its target price to £27 from £28.20 due to forex changes.
"We expect CCH to deliver another year of solid topline growth in full year 2018, albeit with more balanced volume growth and price/mix than in recent years," CS said in a note.
"The company expects volume growth in all segments, in particular key markets Russia and Nigeria where the macro environment is becoming more favourable (Russia returned to low-single digit volume growth in Q4)."
"Growth is now broader based as many of CCH's smaller markets are contributing. We expect the group volume growth acceleration to offset a slower albeit solid price/mix development, as the business laps prior year price increases."
Shares in contracts-for-difference trading service provider Plus500 surged on Wednesday as it posted a jump in full-year profit, announced a special dividend and said revenues for 2018 are expected to be "significantly" ahead of market views.
In the year to the end of December 2017, net profit jumped 70% to $199.7m as revenue rose 33% to $437.2m. Active customer numbers increased 103% to 317,175 and new customers were up 136% to 246,946.
The company announced a dividend per share of $1.7 for the year, up from $0.9 the year before and said a share buyback of $7.5m was executed during the year. It also announced a special dividend of $0.6 per share.
Chief executive Asaf Elimelech said: "We are pleased to announce record annual results which have demonstrated the significant operational leverage inherent in our business model. Our continued focus on serving our customers' trading needs through product innovation and technology leadership, combined with our successful marketing activity, has led to strong new customer sign ups, reduced churn in the second half and increased customer activity.
"We continue to have a highly flexible business model, a lean cost structure and geographically diversified revenues and operations that help mitigate the impact of regulatory changes on our financial performance. Overall, we anticipate that the industry will consolidate around a smaller number of larger participants, of which we believe Plus500 will be amongst the leaders."
Plus500 said it now expects revenues for the year to the end of December 2018 to be "significantly" ahead of market expectations following record financial KPIs in the early weeks of the first quarter. In addition, it expects to broaden its global footprint and continue to diversify revenues including adding further new licences to those recently announced.