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Croda International PLC on Tuesday reported a record performance in 2021 with all of the speciality chemical company's businesses trading ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
Shares were down 3.4% in London on Tuesday at 7,230.00 pence each, underperforming the wider market. The FTSE 100 index was down 0.9%.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Foots said 2021 was an ‘outstanding year’ for the Yorkshire, England-based chemicals maker.
‘Our Health Care business delivered an exceptional performance as a result of the work we have done to support the global roll out of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and therapeutic drugs, and a rapidly building pipeline of non-Covid applications. This progress has been supported by further organic and inorganic investment to increase innovation and strengthen our platform for future growth,’ he said.
For 2021, pretax profit was £411.5 million, up 53% from £269.5 million in 2020, on revenue of £1.89 billion, up 36% from £1.39 billion.
Croda declared a 100.0p annual dividend, up 9.9% from the 91.0p paid out in 2020. The final dividend was 51.5p, up from 50.5p.
Looking ahead, Croda expects to post growth in 2022 in line with medium-term expectations, backed up by robust consumer demand. It thinks margins in the Consumer Care and Life Sciences divisions will remain strong this year in a push to increase the proportion of its sales from higher value products.
Also notes Lipid systems sales are expected to be at a similar level to 2021. Croda completed the acquisition of Avanti Polar Lipids Inc, which provides drug delivery systems, back in August 2020.
Foots added: ‘Our excellent strategic progress during the Covid-19 pandemic has included progressing our transition to a pure-play Consumer Care and Life Sciences company, with our agreement to sell the majority of our industrial businesses.
‘As a result, Croda will now be focused on faster growth, higher return markets, positioning us to deliver more consistent sales growth and an even stronger profit margin.’
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