Tate & Lyle Reaffirms Performance Expectations for 2015
08 Oct 2015 --- British sugar and sweeteners firm Tate & Lyle has announced its first half trading update, which details its performance as being in line with expectations. Full year guidance remains unchanged, said the company, which last week was ordered to pay $25m to American Sugar following the sale of its sugar operations in 2010.
Bulk Ingredients, excluding commodities (ethanol and co-products), continued to perform steadily and slightly ahead of the comparative period supported by solid sweetener demand. Commodities, which continued to be impacted by low US ethanol margins, were significantly lower than the comparative period, and, as a result, Bulk Ingredients overall performed below the comparative period.
The annual bulk sweetener pricing round is in progress. As previously communicated, toll contracts represent around 75% of US corn sweetener volumes, significantly reducing the volume of business that is re-contracted in any single year.
The company reports that the process of obtaining regulatory approval for the re-alignment of the Eaststarch joint venture in Europe is now concluded and it expects to complete this transaction during the third quarter of the financial year.
Overall, before the impact of exchange rate movements and the final timing of the completion of the Eaststarch transaction, expectations for the Group’s full year performance remain unchanged from our guidance issued at Full Year results in May 2015.
