Brambles Profit Up 21% on Customer Wins, Acquisition

   By Ross Kelly 
 

SYDNEY--Brambles Ltd. (BXB.AU) on Thursday booked a 21% rise in annual net profit as the world's biggest supplier of wooden pallets won new customers, and revenue was boosted by the acquisition of the IFCO plastic-containers business.

Net profit in the year to June 30 rose to US$576.3 million from A$475.3 million a year earlier.

Underlying profit, which excludes one-off items, rose 18% to US$1.01 billion. That translated to US$1.06 billion in constant currency terms, meeting company guidance of US$1.05 billion-US$1.08 billion.

Brambles said it expects underlying profit in the current financial year, measured at June 30 exchange rates, of A$1.01 billion-A$1.07 billion. It said this represents growth of 4-9%.

The company declared a final dividend of 13 Australian cents per share, unchanged from a year earlier.

-By Ross Kelly, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; [e-mail]

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