Proactive Investors - Shares in Diageo PLC (LON:DGE), the maker of alcoholic drinks including Guinness and Smirnoff, fell to their lowest since the pandemic after reporting a fall in annual sales and profits.
However, the FTSE 100 company increased its dividend payout as it eyed a return to growth.
Group sales declined 0.6% to $20.3 billion in the year to 30 June, due to a 3.5% drop in sales volumes, mostly from a larger-than-forecast 21.1% plunge in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region , while North American sales were down 2.5%.
Organic operating profits fell 4.8% to $6 billion, slightly worse than analysts expected.
Chief executive Debra Crew said it was "a challenging year for both our industry and Diageo with continued macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility", where the company focused on "taking the actions needed to ensure Diageo is well-positioned for growth as the consumer environment improves".
Excluding LAC region, organic net sales grew 1.8%, she noted, driven by growth in Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe regions.
Crew and the board were also able to recommend a 5% hike to the full-year dividend to 103.48 cents per share after net cash flow from operating activities increased by $0.5 billion to $4.1 billion.
The FTSE 100-listed group also completed a $1.0 billion share buyback in the year.
To try and return to growth, Crew said actions were taken to manage the inventory issues in LAC, resources have been redeployed towards the best growth opportunities and made productivity savings of nearly $700 million.
The shares fell 10% to below 2,300p for the first time since March 2020.