August 2, 2012
Nutreco reports record earnings
Nutreco, the Netherlands-based animal feed company, has reported a continued "strong momentum" in all segments, as well as record earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITA).
Nutreco declared first half earnings of EUR103.6 million (US$127 million), 23.9% higher than first half earnings from 2011. The company has also reported a revenue of EUR2.4 billion (US$2.9 billion), an increase of 10.8% compared to the first half of 2011.
A breakdown of income showed that EBITA animal nutrition increased by 22.2% and fish feed was also up by 24.6%. Strong growth, Nutreco said, was also seen in China, both in animal nutrition and fish feed and earnings per share from continuing operations in China increased by 45.9%.
A new executive board will also be in place from August 2012 and current Nutreco CEO Wout Dekker said it gave him a special satisfaction to report a record first half. He said, "The rising prices for raw feed materials are having an impact on the production costs of livestock farmers. This explains the on-going R&D commitment of Nutreco to explore alternative and less expensive raw material options and to increase the efficiency of feed formulations."
An extension of the company''s activities in Brazil has also seen an increase in the shareholding of Nutreco Fri-Ribe to 97%, which was helped by the purchase of Bellman Nutri？§ao Animal- a Brazilian supplier and producer of farm minerals and concentrates. Nutreco said it was also working on a new factory in Russia, which will produce feed for young animals and should be open by the end of 2012.
Dekker said, "The results and business developments in the first half-year show Nutreco is on track in implementing our strategy of ''Ambition 2016- driving sustainable growth''. We also successfully raised US$250 million in long-term debt from the private placement market to further diversify our funding structure and to extend our debt maturity profile in order to support our strategic objectives."
Nutreco also said that the first half-year results had given the company confidence for the full-year performance later this year. Nutreco has also said that it expects the full year EBITA to be around EUR260 million (US$320 million).