ABF Associated British Foods Plc

By Tapan Panchal

LONDON--Associated British Foods PLC (ABF.LN) Wednesday recorded a 36% rise in first-half adjusted operating profit, in line with expectations, and said outlook for its fiscal 2017 results has improved.

In the six months ended March 4, AB Foods recorded operating profit, before certain exceptional items, of 652 million pounds ($824.85 million), up from GBP486 million recorded in the year ago period. Sales at the company's fashion clothing unit Primark grew 12% in the interim period, ahead of the company's forecasts in February.

The food, ingredients and retail group added that it expects to report good growth for its full-year adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share.

On a statutory basis, first-half pretax profit totaled GBP867 million, up from GBP452 million, on a revenue of GBP7.29 billion and GBP6.12 billion, respectively.

"Primark delivered a substantial increase in selling space which, together with its strong consumer offering, contributed to a further increase in our share of the total clothing market. Furthermore, we achieved a more acceptable rate of return in Sugar and further good progress was made by our ingredients and grocery businesses," said Chief Executive George Weston.

The U.K.-listed company has declared a dividend of 11.35 pence per share for the period, up from 10.3 pence paid a year ago.

Write to Tapan Panchal at tapan.panchal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2017 02:40 ET (06:40 GMT)

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