Lower sugar prices to weigh on Tereos results after record profit
Adds more details and quotes from interview throughout
By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) -French sugar group Tereos nearly trebled net profit in its 2023/24 financial year to a record 448 million euros ($487 million), helped by high sugar prices, but a dip on global markets will weigh on this year's results, it said on Wednesday.
Tereos, a cooperative which also produces ethanol, alcohol and starches, is one of the world's largest sugar makers, thanks to its large sugar cane-based production in Brazil.
Group sales rose 9% to 7.14 billion euros in the year to March 31, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 15% at 1.13 billion euros, also supported by the successful execution of its sales, hedging and cost management strategy, it said.
But a fall in sugar prices since late 2023 on expectations of hefty global supplies and pressure from imports of Ukrainian sugar in Europe, will weigh in the current year, Tereos Chief Executive Olivier Leducq told Reuters.
"In Europe it will slow down significantly. We will have a drop in prices and a drop in margins on sugar and on starch-based sweetening products," Tereos Chief Executive Olivier Leducq told Reuters in an interview.
He was echoing comments by rivals including Europe's largest sugar maker, Suedzucker SZUG.DE, which also posted strong results this month but expected lower annual earnings largely because of high production costs and weak sugar prices.
While the average EU white sugar price stood at 830 euros a metric ton in 2023/24, Leducq said they could now be below his March forecast of 700/750 euros a ton in 2024/25.
Tereos' sales and EBITDA already started to fall in the last quarter of last year at minus 6% and minus 18% respectively.
In contrast, Leducq expects stable or better results in Brazil this year, helped by a high crop and an expected rise in global prices if dry weather persists in Brazil's centre.
The European starch sector was expected to remain below its pandemic-era peak due to a fall in demand.
The good performance expected in Brazil would not compensate for the lower one seen in Europe but cash flow should remain positive, Leducq said.
The group's net debt, under scrutiny in the bond market, stood at 2.37 billion euros by March 31, down from 2.7 billion euros a year earlier, with the structural debt at 1.0 billion, down 800 million euros over three years.
($1 = 0.9199 euros)
Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide
Editing by David Holmes, David Goodman and Jane Merriman
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