Tate & Lyle starts sugars business sell-off

1st Jul 2010 07:00

Tate & Lyle has sold the largest part of its sugars division to American Sugar Refining of the US for £211m - a deal that will see it lose some of its well known brands.The group also said it planned to sell the remaining businesses within the Sugars division, principally Molasses and Vietnamese sugar. The Sugars division will be classified as discontinued in the interim results in September 2010. The EU Sugar Refining operations consists of the cane sugar refineries in London and Lisbon, the Lyle's Golden Syrup factory in London, the associated sugar and syrup brands and the Tate & Lyle Process Technology consulting business. The sale excludes historic UK pension assets and liabilities and is expected to give rise to a book loss on disposal, before costs, of approximately £55m, subject to exchange rate movements. The transaction is expected to be neutral to the group's adjusted earnings per share on total operations in the 2011 financial year. Tate & Lyle will provide American Sugar Refining with a worldwide licence to use the Tate & Lyle brand."Sugar refining has enjoyed a long and proud history within Tate & Lyle, but we believe the interests of this business and its employees are now best served by being part of a company for whom sugar refining is core. I sincerely thank our employees for their hard work and commitment over the years, and wish them every success in the future," said chief executive Javed AhmedThe group had said in May that its clear intention is to "focus, fix and grow its business." Ahmed said today's announcement is consistent with those intentions and its priority is to grow its Speciality Food Ingredients business, supported by cash generated from Bulk Ingredients.