South Africa's Mondi full-year earnings, dividend up

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African paper maker Mondi posted higher 2013 full-year earnings on Friday, helped by benefits from acquisitions in its packaging business. Mondi, which is also listed in London, said diluted headline earnings per share for the year to end-December totalled 91.1 euro cents from 62.7 euro cents a year earlier. Headline EPS is the key measure of profitability in South Africa and strips out certain one-off and non-trading items. "The packaging paper business was the stand-out performer, benefiting from higher average pricing in all key grades and good volume growth," the company said. Mondi, mainly involved in the manufacture of packaging paper, said underlying operating profit was up 22 percent to 699 million euros. Mondi declared a final dividend of 26.45 euro cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 36 euro cents per share.