Rexam tops FTSE leaderboard after putting personal care business up for sale The company, which makes 60bn cans a year for companies such as PepsiCo as well as packaging for food, healthcare and cosmetic products, said it had decided to spin off its under-performing personal care unit as it did not expect a turnaround in the near term. The unit has been hit by rising costs and falling volumes. While Rexam did not put a price tag on the unit, or give a timeframe for its sale, analysts said the business could fetch as much as £350m. "Current trading is weak, but we expect [the personal care unit] to be sold," Ross Gilardi, an analyst at BoA Merrill Lynch, said. In the year to December 31, pre-tax profits jumped 28pc to £431m, boosted by a fall in interest expenses. Sales rose 2pc to £4.7bn. The final dividend was declared at 9.7p and will be paid on June 7. This will bring the total payment for the year to 14.4p, a year-on-year rise of 20pc. Rexam said it remained "cautious" about prospects for the global economy and pointed to a rise in costs over the coming year, but it expects 2012 will be another year of progress. "The end markets that we're supporting are pretty defensive," Graham Chipcase, Rexam's chief executive, said. "People are still going out and buying beer and fizzy drinks in good times and bad," he added. The shares jumped 28.6p to 413p to close at their highest level since May 2008.