RPC expects H1 to be well ahead of expectations

Sept 28 (Reuters) - British packaging company RPC Group Plc (LSE: RPC.L - news) said it expects its first-half revenue to be well ahead of expectations helped by acquisitions, favourable currency movements and strength in China.

RPC (NYSE: RES - news) , which generates about 70 percent of its revenue from outside Britain, said margins and profitability levels are also anticipated to beat expectations.

It did not disclose any detail on how large a benefit currency movements delivered or how much the revenue is expected to rise to.

The company said on Thursday that in the first half it achieved good growth in China benefiting from investments made in 2016.

RPC has been positioning itself to benefit from a weak British pound since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in June 2016.

RPC has spent about $1.5 billion on seven acquisitions since June last year, including its $640 million takeover of Letica Group, a U.S-based maker of plastic food packaging products, in February.

Jefferies analysts, who viewed H1 as "reassuring", said in a note the trading update is a "further step on RPC's path to re-build investor confidence in sustained organic growth with improved conversion of operating profit to free cash flow."

($1 = 0.7477 pounds) (Reporting by Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely)