Drinks giant Diageo said it was in the early stages of recovery when reporting a 5 per cent rise in half-year earnings and keeping its profit growth target for the year.
The company, which makes Guinness, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, posted underlying earnings for the half year to end-December of 44.2 pence a share, below a consensus of 46.2 pence.
The interim dividend was raised 5 per cent to 14.6 pence.
"We are in the early stages of recovery with more encouraging signs in the emerging and developing markets," said chief executive Paul Walsh in a results statement.
The British group's annual underlying sales were down 2 per cent, while operating profit was off 3 per cent.
Diageo and arch rival Pernod Ricard suffered from the global downturn and big destocking in the United States in early 2009, but are now both looking to benefit from the first signs of recovery.
Diageo reiterated its target for a low single digit percentage rise in operating profit for the year to June 2010, after last month Pernod repeated its similar target for 1-3 per cent growth in underlying annual profit.
Reuters