Financial highlights

  • Underlying sales growth of 5.5%
  • Operating margin of 13.1%, with an underlying improvement of 0.2 percentage points
  • Earnings per share from continuing operations up 12%
  • Total regular dividends to rise by 7%

Turnover(1)(2)(3)

€ million

Turnover in € million, 2007 - 40,187, 2006 - 39,642

 

£ million

Turnover in £ million, 2007 - 27,416, 2006 - 27,028

Underlying sales growth(1)

%

Underlying sales growth in percentages, 2007 - 5.5%, 2006 - 3.8%

Operating profit(1)(2)(3)

€ million

Operating profit in € million, 2007 - 5,245, 2006 - 5,408

 

£ million

Operating profit in £ million, 2007 - 3,578, 2006 - 3,687

Operating margin(1)

%

Operating margin in percentages, 2007 - 13.1%, 2006 - 13.6%

Dividends(3)(4)

€
per Ordinary €0.16 share of NV

Dividends in €, 2007 - 0.75, 2006 - 0.70

 

pence
per Ordinary 31/9p share of PLC

Dividens in pence, 2007 - 51.11, 2006 - 47.66

(1) From continuing operations.
(2) Sterling translated for convenience only.
(3) For $ conversions, see the Summary Financial Statement
(4) In addition, a one-off dividend of €0.26 per Ordinary NV share and 17.66p per Ordinary PLC share was paid in December 2006.