10th Mar 2016 08:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish agri-services company Origin Enterprises PLC on Thursday said the first half of its financial year was weaker than expected, with increased seasonality leaving it dependent on the second half.
Origin said agri-services trading started slower than expected in the six months to the end of January, with adverse weather conditions, particularly heavy rain in the UK, combining with a difficult market backdrop to increase the weighting of its full-year performance to the second half. It added its autumn and winter cropping base provides a strong platform for the second half.
The group swung to a pretax loss of EUR4.1 million in the first half, compared to a EUR7.6 million profit a year earlier, as revenue dipped to EUR507.2 million from EUR531.6 million.
Origin said it will initiate a programme of interim dividend payments going forward, from annual payments previously, and will pay a 3.15 euro cent dividend for the first half.
"Highly adverse and unseasonal weather patterns have significantly limited in-field crop maintenance activity during the second quarter in particular. This, combined with weak farmer confidence reflecting the current pressures on primary producer incomes and cash flows, is expected to result in a greater concentration of service and input demand arising during the main application period in the second half of the financial year," said Chief Executive Tom O'Mahony.
O'Mahony said Origin anticipates hitting its earnings expectations for the full year, assuming no material adverse change in exchange rates in the second half and normal weather conditions prevailing.
Origin shares were untraded in Londonon Thursday morning, having last traded at EUR6.59.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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