Lindt & Spruengli raises guidance, starts buyback

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli on Tuesday raised its sales guidance and unveiled a 1 billion Swiss franc ($1.04 billion) share buyback programme after first-half net profit jumped 36% to 138.4 million francs.

It said it now expected 2022 organic sales growth of 8-10% with an operating margin of around 15%. It had previous guided for 6-8% growth this year.

($1 = 0.9638 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Michael Shields, Editing by Miranda Murray)