Croda International, the Snaith, East Yorkshire-based FTSE 100 speciality chemicals giant, said on Tuesday it will pay out £139.4 million in dividends after its adjusted profit before tax soared 48% to a record £445.2 million in the year to December 31, 2021.
Croda said its sales rose 35.9% to a record £1.889 billion.
Croda said its total proposed dividend for the year will rise 10% to £1.00 per share, amounting to £139.4 million.
Croda CEO Steve Foots said: “2021 has been an outstanding year for Croda, with record financial results and excellent strategic progress.
“All parts of the business have delivered underlying growth, ahead of 2019 pre-pandemic levels, with strong cost recovery in a high inflation environment.
“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.
“I’m grateful to Croda colleagues around the world who have risen to the dual challenges of responding to a rapid recovery in customer demand whilst managing ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
“I am also delighted that we have established the Croda Foundation, which is already helping over 50 million people globally by supporting vaccine infrastructure.
“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.”
In its outlook, Croda said: “Growth is expected to continue in 2022 in line with our medium-term expectations.
“This should be supported by robust consumer demand, inflation cost recovery and the benefit of our recent investments more than offsetting moderation in customer restocking.
“Lipid systems sales are expected to be at a similar level to 2021.
“With an increasing proportion of group sales coming from higher value add solutions, profit margins in Consumer Care and Life Sciences are expected to remain strong.
“The combination of our differentiated business model, healthy innovation pipeline and current investment programme are expected to underpin performance and continue to generate value for all our stakeholders.”