Reckitt Benckiser profit up 23pc
CONSUMER goods group Reckitt Benckiser saw net profit rise 23 per cent to £380m, in the second quarter.
Sales rose to £2.1bn from £1.9bn in the same period last year.
Reckitt, which agreed to buy durex-maker SSL for £2.54bn, said if its offer was successful it hoped to close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Reckitt, the maker of Cillit Bang and Nurofen painkillers, saw its half-year dividend rose 16 per cent to 50 pence.
The group held to its full year 2010 targets to see a five per cent rise in underlying sales and a ten per cent increase in operating profit after stripping out its high-growth pharmaceuticals unit and taken at constant currency.
Chief executive Bart Becht said: “We are re-iterating our full year targets for the group assuming no change in current market conditions.”