RPC profit surges helped by acquisitions, forex

(Reuters) - British packaging company RPC Group Plc said its profit jumped 59 percent in the first half of the year, helped by acquisitions, cost savings and favourable currency movements.

RPC, which generates about 70 percent of its revenue from outside Britain, has been positioning itself to benefit from a weak pound since the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016.

In September, the company said it achieved good growth in China benefiting from investments it made last year. RPC posted organic growth of 23 percent in China, while total organic growth was about 2 percent.

RPC has spent about $1.5 billion on seven acquisitions since June last year.

Adjusted profit before tax rose to 199.2 million pounds in the six months ended Sept. 30, from 125.5 million pounds a year earlier, the company said.

Revenue rose 53 percent to 1.88 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)