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Company update: Nutreco

13-08-2009 | |

First half 2009 operating profit of Dutch animal feed group Nutreco fell by half on weak demand for animal feeds, but a projected second-half improvement pushed its shares higher.

Half-year earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) fell to €41.6 million (-49.2%) from €82 million a year ago. Sales at Nutreco fell 8.5% to €2.13 billion.
 
The major part of the decline was due to loss in feed volume (-7%) and price reductions (-1.5%).
 
Nutreco, which had warned investors in April that it was facing half-year declines in sales and profit, blamed the drop on its European Compound feed unit due to a one-off charge of about €20 million, which resulted in a €13 million loss for the unit.
 
Net profit for the first-half fell 76% to €12.3 million, compared with €51.3 million a year earlier.
 
Back into profits
Nutreco said in a statement that the business would return to profitability in the second-half and would produce "marginal profitability" for 2009.
 
"Demand for food will increase again as the global economies recover and population numbers rise," Nutreco Chief Executive Wout Dekker said in a statement.
 
Nutreco also said its recent acquisition of 12 compound feed plants of Cargill in Spain and Portugal would help it win market share.

Ziggers
Dick Ziggers Former editor All About Feed





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