Tate & Lyle continues encouraging performance

31st Mar 2011 07:23

Food ingredients firm Tate & Lyle said that operating performance in the year to end-March was in line with market expectations, save for the company receiving a late boost to co-product income from the rise in corn prices. The group has seen global volume growth in Speciality Food Ingredients across all the major product categories through the year. Within Bulk Ingredients, sweetener volumes remained strong and margins improved in industrial starches, particularly in Europe where the market has tightened following a poor potato harvest. The higher co-product income primarily benefits the Bulk Ingredients division.As a result of the sale of its ethanol facility at Fort Dodge in Iowa and a consequent reversal of exceptional charges booked in the first half of the current financial year, Tate & Lyle expects to record an exceptional credit of £36m in the second half of the financial year, and an exceptional credit for the full year of £11m.The Fort Dodge sale crystallises tax losses of around £65m, the bulk of which should be recovered in cash over the coming two financial years. The sale of Fort Dodge means that net debt at the end of the year is expected to be lower than the previously indicated level.---jh