Proactive Investors - DS Smith’s full-year results should have potentially been its last as a listed paper business following an agreed £5.8 billion bid from US group International Paper.
But an offer for Int’l Paper from Brazilian group Suzano has mixed things up and it might be, that like an earlier offer from Mondi (LON:MNDI), this deal too falls through.
A trading update from DS Smith (LON:SMDS) in March confirmed that trading was in line with expectations, thanks to an uptick in corrugated box volumes in the second half compared to a 4.7% year-on-year first-half drop.
Sales for the year are forecast to be around £7 billion, down 15% with a small improvement to £7.3 billion expected for the current year.
Consensus numbers suggest a headline pre-tax profit of around £600 million down by around 10%, with a modest increase in fiscal 2025.
AJ Bell notes that an operating profit of £700 million would equate to a margin of 10%, at the low end of the company’s 10% to 12% target range, though the wealth platform adds that any comment on the International Paper-Suzano-DS Smith triangle will likely overshadow the numbers.