July 30, 2012
Nutreco''s H1 2012 results up 24%
Compared with the first half of 2011''s EUR83.6 million (US$103 million), Nutreco has delivered a record EBITA of EUR103.6 million (US$128 million) in the first half of 2012, up 23.9%.
Revenue hit EUR2.4 billion (US$3 billion), up 10.8% compared with the first half of 2011''s EUR2.1 billion (US$2.6 billion), of which 4.7% is organic volume growth.
Nutreco''s EBITA in animal nutrition jumped by 22.2% from EUR59.8 million (US$74 million) to EUR73.1 million (US$90 million) and EBITA in fish feed climbed by 24.6% to EUR44 million (US$54 million) compared to EUR35.3 million (US$43.5 million) a year ago.
The firm''s operations in Brazil were able to expand thanks to greater shareholding in Fri-Ribe and the acquisition of farm mineral company Bellman.
In China, Nutreco saw excellent performance both in animal nutrition and fish feed, as well as strong growth in the Shihai fish feed business acquired in October 2011.
"The half year saw strong volume growth in Fish Feed, especially for salmon, with shrimp feed further increasing in significance due to the contribution of the Shihai feed business in China acquired in October 2011," said Wout Dekker, CEO Nutreco.
To support the firm''s operations in Asia, Skretting''s Aquaculture Research Centre is building a research centre close to this plant, Dekker said. Earnings per share from continuing operations increased by 45.9%.
In light of the current uncertain economic environment and based on present trading conditions, Nutreco expects full year EBITA before exceptional items of approximately EUR260 million (US$320 million) compared to the 2011 figure of EUR231.6 million (US$285 million). Historically, Nutreco''s result is weighted towards the second half of the year as a result of seasonality in fish feed.
"The results and business developments in the first half year show Nutreco is on track in implementing the strategy ''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," Dekker said.
Nutreco''s ''Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth'' scheme consists of growing and improving profitability by providing innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions for its customers and is expected to result in an EBITA of EUR400 million (US$493 million) by 2016.
Nutreco plans to achieve this by focusing on a higher margin portfolio of nutritional solutions such as premixes, feed specialties and fish feed, and by entering the growth geographies of Latin America, Russia, China and Southeast Asia, which are expected to have the largest increases in both production and consumption of animal protein food products.
Starting on August 1, Dekker will give up his position to Knut Nesse, who will be the new CEO of Nutreco.