Reckitt Benckiser Backs 2023 View, Starts GBP1 Billion Share Buyback

By Michael Susin and Joe Hoppe

Reckitt Benckiser backed its revenue growth expectations for the full year despite slightly missing third-quarter market expectations, and kicked off a 1 billion pound ($1.22 billion) share-buyback program.

The consumer-goods company--which houses Dettol, Harpic and Durex among its brands--backed guidance for 2023 revenue growth on a like-for-like basis in the range of 3% to 5% and adjusted operating margin to be slightly ahead of 2022 levels of 23.8%, when excluding a one-off benefit related to U.S. nutrition.

The company reported a quarterly revenue drop of 3.6% on year on a reported basis to GBP3.60 billion. This compares with a company-provided market expectations of GBP3.63 billion.

Revenue growth on a like-for-like basis was 3.4%.

Reckitt said the share buyback program will begin immediately and run over the next 12 months.

Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com and Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 25, 2023 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)

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