British Polythene Industries shares jumped by five per cent as the group reported a higher than anticipated gain on a disposal in China and stronger than expected trading in the first quarter of the year.
BPI said it had completed the sale of its Chinese subsidiary BPI China to a subsidiary of Amcor, the Australian-based packaging group, first announced in January.
It said the gain on the disposal in this year’s accounts was likely to be £5million, a 25 per cent uplift on the original estimate.
The Greenock-based group said the total proceeds were estimated at £9.7m and an initial payment of £6.4m had been received.
The balance will be paid in instalments following the agreement of closing working capital of around £2m, and of certain post-completion arrangements. The proceeds will be used to reduce borrowings.
BPI added: “Trading performance in the first quarter has been strong and ahead of management’s expectations, having benefited, in particular, from lower energy costs and favourable currency translation effects.”
Two months ago BPI reported a four per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £23.1m last year despite a six per cent fall in revenues to £468m and record highs in the cost of its key raw material polymer. Chief executive John Langlands said the company had achieved capital expenditure of £18m and a £17m injection into the pension scheme whilst still offering shareholders a 12.5per cent dividend increase.
BPI shares jumped eight per cent in early trade to 735p and settled up 32p at 712p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here