UK: Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc profits up 23%

British brewer and pubs owner Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc met forecasts with a 23 per cent rise in underlying annual profit and said it continued to be bullish about future trading, Reuters reported June 11.

"The current financial year has started well and is in line with expectations," chairman Anthony Fuller said in a statement.

Chief executive officer Michael Turner forecast further growth and said the ban on smoking in workplaces in England from July would affect Fuller's less than its competitors.

"We have been working for a long time to improve the fresh food offer in all our pubs. This will place us very well for the smoking ban which will affect everybody but will affect Fuller's less," Mr Turner said.

The firm, famous for its London Pride and ESB beers, pubs and bars, made a pretax profit before exceptional items of �22.1 million in the 52 weeks to end-March, on revenue up 23 per cent to �178 million.

Including a �20.1 million gain from property sales, Fuller's made a pretax profit of �42.3 million.

"It has been an exceptional year, boosted by the addition of a full year's contribution from the Gales business, the profits generated from the sale of two hotels, and strong underlying growth," Mr Fuller said.

The final dividend was raised 15 per cent to 16.25 pence, making the total dividend 15 per cent higher at 22.72 pence.

"At the moment they are top of the class as far as trading is concerned, especially in terms of asset quality and re-leveraging opportunity," an analyst at a British brokerage said.

"These guys are performing ahead of the competition, they are getting much higher growth," he added.

Panmure Gordon analyst Douglas Jack said Mr Fuller's statement that full-year like-for-like sales at managed uninvested pubs rose 6.7 per cent implied second-half growth of 9.2 per cent so "we are reiterating our 'buy' stance". Panmure has a 2,100 pence price target for Fuller's stock.

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