Haleon reports single-digit growth in revenue after year of disposals
British consumer healthcare company, Haleon, revenue has single-digit growth of over 2023 as the company generated £11.3bn, in a year that saw it make several disposals.
Its revenue went up by four per cent from £10.8bn reported in 2022, as the company’s adjusted operating profit had a healthy growth of 10.4 per cent, at constant currency to £2.5bn.
The FTSE 100-listed business was spun out from GSK, formerly GlaxoSmithKline, in a blockbuster £31bn listing in 2022. GSK completed its demerger of Haleon in July 2022.
Over the last year, its net cash flow from operating activities generated £2.1bn, with free cash flow of £1.6bn, while net debt as of 31 December 2023 was £8.6bn. The company stated that within 18 months of its demerger with GSK, it has reduced net debt by over £2bn.
For the full-year 2023, the business proposed a dividend payout of 35 per cent, compared to the financial year of 2022’s 30 per cent, with a final dividend of 4.2p per ordinary share.
It also announced capital allocation of £500m for share buybacks in 2024.
Its results comes after a string of disposals, in a bid to shore up some cash in the business. Haleon completed the sale of its Lamisil business last October as it sold it to Karo Healthcare for £235m. While, at the start of the year, Haleon agreed to sell its Chapstick lip balm brand to US private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners for $510m (£401m), as part of efforts to “simplify” its business model.
The company believes it will have organic revenue growth over 2024 as it expects it to be between 4 per cent to 6 per cent. Haleon also reports that it is “positioned well to deliver on medium term guidance”.
Commenting on the results, CEO Brian McNamara said: “I am very pleased with our results. We delivered strong organic growth of 8 per cent, with Q4 organic growth over 6 per cent. We saw positive volume/mix in the full year, up slightly in Q4, demonstrating continued resilience in challenging markets. Importantly, we saw organic growth across all regions and categories, with healthy momentum in our power and local growth brands.”
“We will continue to actively manage our portfolio, with the agreement to dispose of ChapStick and Lamisil two examples, simplifying the business and increasing focus on our higher growth brands. Our productivity
programme is progressing well and the savings from this will enable us to increase investment across the
business, underpin operational leverage and support our evolution into a more agile organisation,” he added.
Haleon’s share price is up over 7 per sent this morning as it trades as 337.15 per share.