By Joe Hoppe 



  Diageo PLC said Tuesday that its fiscal 2020 pretax profit more than halved and net sales fell amid the coronavirus pandemic, and declared a final dividend of 42.47 pence. 


  The world's largest liquor maker--which owns Johnnie Walker whisky and Tanqueray gin--said operating profit, its preferred metric, fell as the coronavirus pandemic drove down sales in the second half of the year. 


  Operating profit for the period was 2.14 billion pounds ($2.80 billion), down from GBP4.04 billion. 


  Pretax profit for the year fell to GBP2.04 billion from GBP4.24 billion, compared with analysts' consensus forecasts of GB3.45 billion, according to FactSet. 


  Net sales fell to GBP11.75 billion from GBP12.87 billion, Diageo said. 


  The company declared a final dividend of 42.47 pence a share, flat on last year and bring the total dividend for the year up 2% to 69.8 pence. 


  Diageo said organic net sales fell 8.4%, while organic volumes declined 11.2%, at growth in North America was offset by declines in its other markets. 


  Chief Executive Ivan Menezes said that while the trajectory of the recovery is uncertain, with volatility expected to continue into fiscal 2021, he was confident in Diageo's strategy and resilience, and said it was well-positioned to emerge from the crisis stronger. 


  Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com