Smurfit Kappa Group (LON: SKG) on Wednesday said revenue has grown during the first nine months of the year, and that it has purchased a Serbian packaging business for €133 mln. The FTSE 100 company in a nine-month trading update said it has logged revenue growth of more than 7% year-on-year, and that group pre-exceptional underlying earnings (EBITDA) were up 27% year-on-year to €1.130 mln. Also, its EBITDA margin showed an improvement of 290 basis points to 16.9% over the same period in 2017.
READ: Smurfit Kappa sees first-half profit jump
Chief Executive Tony Smurfit said: “In May of this year, we stated that we expect 2018 to be materially better than 2017. SKG is on track to deliver a materially better outcome in 2018 with our key performance measures showing significant and continuing improvement.”
The company had revenue of €8.6 billion in 2017.
The Irish group earlier this year fought off an attempted takeover by US-based International Paper (NYSE:IP).
Serbian transaction and board appointment
Separately, Smurfit Kappa said it purchased the Fabrika Hartije d.o.o. Beograd paper mill and the Avala Ada d.o.o. Beograd corrugated plant in Belgrade for €133 mln from Kappa Star Group. The deal will be Smurfit's "cornerstone" to the expansion of its business in Southeast Europe, providing for full containerboard integration in that region, it said. The transaction will be funded from existing resources. Meanwhile, Smurfit named Irial Finan as chair designate, effective October 31. He succeeds Liam O’Mahony who will retire from the board after the company's annual general meeting on May 3, 2019. Finan joined the board in February 2012 and has served as chair of the Remuneration Committee since 2015.