Ansell Limited (ASX:ANN) Half Year Profit Up 12% To US$61.0 Million

Sydney, Feb 9, 2011 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Ansell Limited (ASX:ANN) (PINK:ANSLF) today announced Profit Attributable for the first half of US$61.0m, up 12% on the previous year's US$54.3m.

EPS in Ansell's operating currency, the US dollar, rose 14% from F'10 H1 driven by strong sales, the benefits of past restructuring actions, lower interest and tax expenses.

Based on this, the Board declared an Interim Dividend of A$14.0cent a share, unfranked and payable on 16 March, 2011.

Ansell's Chairman, Mr Peter Barnes commented: "This was a challenging six month period, as Ansell faced substantial increases in key raw material costs and adverse foreign exchange movements, continued to invest significant resources in Fusion (the company's major ERP project) and implemented a major reorganisation.
I am pleased to report that, even with these substantial pressures, the half's results were up solidly enabling your Board to continue its well established program of increasing dividends."

Ansell's CEO, Magnus Nicolin, stated: "Last July's reorganisation into four Global Business Units (GBU's) has been completed ahead of schedule. The GBU's have responsibility for strategy, innovation, global marketing and brand development and have made significant progress on a more focused innovation agenda as well as on driving simplification. We continued to make steady progress on Project Fusion, and expect to commence a phased implementation with the roll out of the new ERP system in the Americas Region in the 2nd half."

For the complete Ansell announcement including a presentation, please view the following link:

http://www.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/65185-ASX_ANN_02_09.pdf

Contact

Media Australia Peter Brookes Citadel Tel: +61-0407-911-389 Email: pbrookes@citadelpr.com.au Investors & Analysts USA Rustom Jilla Chief Financial Officer Tel: +1732-345-5359 Email: rjilla@ansell.com Australia David Graham General Manager - Finance & Treasury Tel: +61-3-9270-7215 +61-0401-140-749 Email: dgraham@ap.ansell.com