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DCC posts 11.1 percent rise in full-year profit

(Reuters) - British support services company DCC Plc (DCC.L) reported an 11.1 percent rise in full-year operating profit on Tuesday, driven by strong growth across all its divisions.

DCC, whose services range from distributing oil to making The Body Shop's body butters, said adjusted operating profit from continuing operations rose to 383.4 million pounds in the year ended March 31, from 345 million pounds a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected an operating profit or EBIT of 379 million pounds, according company-compiled estimates.

DCC said it expects the year ending March 31, 2019 to be another one of profit growth and development.

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The company, which has spent 670 million pounds on acquisitions during the year, has been looking to expand its footprint further outside Europe through more deals.

In February, DCC bought Elite One Source Nutritional Services, with an enterprise value of $50 million, marking its entry into the U.S. healthcare market.

The company announced its first acquisition outside its core markets in April 2017 when it agreed to buy Shell's (RDSa.L) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business in Hong Kong and Macau at a value of about 120 million pounds.

The acquisitions in new markets will provide further opportunities for both organic and acquisitive growth for the group, Chief Executive Donal Murphy said on Tuesday.

The company proposed a final dividend of 82.09 pence, bringing the total payout for the year to 122.98 pence, 10 percent higher than last year, making it the twenty-fourth consecutive year of dividend growth since DCC listed in 1994.

Murphy, who took over from long-time chief executive Tommy Breen in July, said in November he could not say how much the company would earmark for further acquisitions, but would like to deploy capital across all four of its businesses.

The company said revenue, on a continuing basis, rose 16.3 percent to 14.27 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan and Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)