18 September 2008 - In Q1 2008/09, Danisco recorded 9% organic growth Y/Y, well ahead of our long-term target. Genencor, Enablers and Cultures saw solid top-line momentum. In spite of disappointing Sweeteners performance, EBIT was in line with our expectations. We upgrade our group profit estimate on the back of an after-tax gain of around DKK 100 million from divesting our venture company Direvo.
CEO Tom Knutzen comments: ’Q1 has been another eventful quarter for Danisco as we continue to implement our strategy. We have found an attractive buyer for Sugar, we have announced another exciting collaboration in the field of industrial biotech – namely with Goodyear – we are accelerating growth in most of our businesses, and we have been given the go-ahead to acquire Abitec, thus further strengthening our market leadership within food ingredients. We feel confident we are moving in the right direction.’
Highlights
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Satisfactory top-line performance; 9% organic growth for the Group exceeded Danisco’s long-term targets.
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Key organic growth contributors included Genencor (+13% Y/Y) and Enablers (+13% Y/Y); Cultures also maintained its solid top-line momentum.
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Group EBIT performance as we expected despite disappointing earnings in Sweeteners.
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Our newly announced Goodyear collaboration reinforces our biochemicals strategy – and our joint venture with DuPont is making good progress.
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The sale of our stake in venture company Direvo triggers a DKK 100 million upgrade in our outlook for group profit for the period.
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In August, Danisco’s shareholders approved the Board of Directors’ proposal to divest Sugar to Nordzucker. The process of filing for approval with competition authorities is in its concluding stage.
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We will initiate a share buyback programme of DKK 1.0 billion once we have closed the Sugar transaction, after which we will review our capital structure.
Outlook for 2008/09
Based on overall strong Q1 performance and the acquisition of Abitec, we lift our revenue estimate to DKK 13.0 billion (previously DKK 12.6 billion). We maintain our EBIT outlook for the Group, excluding Sugar for 2008/09. Our Bio Chemicals Projects estimates are also unchanged, as are our underlying assumptions regarding Sugar. Due to an after-tax gain of around DKK 100 million relating to Direvo, we upgrade our outlook for profit after tax before share-based payments to DKK 1.0 billion (previously DKK 900 million).