1st Mar 2016 08:27
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stevia ingredients producer PureCircle Ltd on Tuesday said it swung to a pretax profit in the first half of its financial year on an improvement in sales and margins.
The group said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of December was USD5.4 million, compared to a USD4.4 million loss a year earlier, as revenue rose to USD54.5 million from USD43.2 million.
The growth in sales was driven by a significant improvement in PureCircle's gross margin, which expanded to 42% from 34% a year earlier. The group is now investing in further production capacity after securing approval for its products in India and Brazil and saw growth in all its ingredient lines and regions in the first half.
PureCircle did not declare a dividend for the half.
Chief Executive Magomet Malsagov said the group expects further profit growth in the second half, though he said the "trajectory" of its sales growth may be unpredictable and will be dependent on the speed of customer roll-outs.
PureCircle shares were up 4.8% to 330.24 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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