Some of the highlights include:
- Revenue of EUR 2,354.5 million; an increase of 10.8 per cent compared with the first half of 2011, of which 4.7 per cent is organic volume growth
- EBITA Animal Nutrition increased by 22.2 per cent and EBITA Fish Feed up by 24.6 per cent
- Expansion of operations in Brazil by increased shareholding in Fri-Ribe and acquisition of farm mineral company Bellman
- Excellent performance in China both in Animal Nutrition and Fish Feed; strong growth in Shihai fish feed business (acquired in October 2011)
- Earnings per share from continuing operations increased by 45.9 per cent
- Sale of Hendrix substantially completed, gain on sale of EUR 18.9 million
- 2012 interim dividend of EUR 0.60 (2011: EUR 0.50) in cash or shares
- New Executive Board in place from August 2012
- Outlook: In an uncertain environment and based on current trading conditions, Nutreco expects full year EBITA before exceptional items of approximately EUR 260 million (2011: EUR 231.6 million)
Wout Dekker, CEO of Nutreco, said: "As this is the last time I will present Nutreco's results it gives me special satisfaction to report a record first half year with EBITA of EUR 103.6 million, passing EUR 100 million for the first time. Equally, I am pleased to report that both Animal Nutrition and Fish Feed contributed to the success with all business segments performing better than the same period last year."
"As in 2008 we again see that the tight balance between supply and demand in agricultural raw materials has had a serious impact on prices. The rising prices for feed raw materials are having an impact on the production costs of livestock farmers. This explains the ongoing R&D commitment of Nutreco to explore alternative and less expensive raw material options and to increase the efficiency of feed formulations."
"Against this background Premix and Feed Specialties improved on the equivalent period in 2011 and is making progress in establishing and implementing the Application and Solution Centres ('ASCs') for Europe and North America. The ASCs facilitate innovation and the development of attractive value propositions for customers, with good progress in developing the Go-to-market strategy. In Iberia the compound feed and meat businesses benefited in difficult economic conditions from their market leadership positions. The first half year saw a shift in our portfolio towards growth geographies and segments as we completed the divestment of the Hendrix business. Nutreco extended its activities in Brazil by increasing its shareholding in Nutreco Fri-Ribe to 97 per cent and by acquiring Bellman Nutriao Animal, a Brazilian supplier and producer of farm minerals and concentrates for ruminants. In Russia we are working on the construction of a new factory for young animal feed, concentrates and premixes which will be operational by Q4 2012."
"The half year saw strong volume growth in Fish Feed, especially for salmon, with shrimp feed further increasing in significance due to the contribution of the Shihai feed business in China acquired in October 2011. To support activities in Asia, Skretting's Aquaculture Research Centre is establishing a research centre close to this plant. The great potential for aquaculture to expand globally and especially in Asia was one of the key themes of the AquaVision 2012 conference organised by Nutreco. Over 400 delegates from 33 countries heard keynote speaker Kofi Annan state that aquaculture has strong potential to contribute to the reduction of hunger in the world, especially in Africa. He congratulated the industry for its focus on improving productivity and sustainability, saying: "I do not ask you to change direction, but I ask you to accelerate progress." The conference also addressed current developments to overcome the challenges facing aquaculture, including advances such as the MicroBalance(TM) concept of Nutreco's Skretting that is helping to make aquaculture more sustainable."
"The results and business developments in the first half year show Nutreco is on track in implementing the strategy 'Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth'. We also succesfully raised USD 250 million in long-term debt from the private placement market to further diversify our funding structure and to extend our debt maturity profile in order to support our strategic objectives."
"As per 1 August, I hand over to Knut Nesse as Chief Executive Officer of Nutreco. Viggo Halseth will become Chief Operating Officer Aquaculture and has been appointed to the Nutreco Executive Board. This will create a strong Executive Board comprising of Knut Nesse (CEO), Gosse Boon (CFO), Jerry Vergeer (COO Agriculture) and Viggo Halseth (COO Aquaculture). Both COOs have long experience in their respective sectors. I'm confident the new Executive Board has the commitment and competence to successfully implement the strategy."
