PureCircle shares down as sales and earnings rise

Operating profit was up an impressive 90% to $32.4m, with adjusted EBITDA growing 70% to $37.7m and net profit after tax up 257% to $14.6m.

The London-listed firm reported earnings per share of 8.49 US cents, up 242%, with fully diluted earnings per share up 246% to 8.37 cents.

Operating cash flow - before working capital changes - was up 34% to $31.9m, though net debt widened to $52.9m from $45.4m, and net assets grew 7% to $203.8m from $190.5m.

“Despite challenging market conditions in FY16, I am delighted with the progress PureCircle has made, with strong growth in both revenue and profit,” said CEO Magomet Malsagov.

“The market for PureCircle stevia has continued to develop strongly with favourable regulatory developments and continued roll-out of ever larger food and beverage brands using stevia.”

Malsagov said significant milestones in the year included the approval of high purity stevia in India and Brazil, Reb M approval in Europe and the launch of the company’s Zeta family of new ingredients, closing the taste gap for low or no calorie applications and opening up new food and beverage category adoption of stevia.

“These developments underpin our confidence in the long term prospects for our business and support the investments we are making to increase production capacity and further product innovation.”

Prospects for the business over the next 4 to 5 years remained strong, Malsagov explained, and the board was confident that as sales continued to increase, it will report improved profitability.

“Nevertheless, we caution that there will be inevitable volatility in the growth trajectory as we move towards our longer term goals.”

At 1116 BST, shares in PureCircle were down 6.06% to 310p.