Asian Citrus Holdings Ltd Trading Update (5106Y)

TIDMACHL

RNS Number : 5106Y

Asian Citrus Holdings Ltd

09 September 2015

 
 For immediate release   9 September 2015

Asian Citrus Holdings Limited

("Asian Citrus" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")

Trading Update

The board of directors of the Company (the "Board") wishes to announce that, based on the preliminary assessment of the unaudited financial information and management accounts of the Group for the year ended 30 June 2015 ("FY2015"), it is anticipated that the Group's turnover for FY2015 will be lower and the core net loss(#) for FY2015 will be significantly higher than the comparative figures for the year ended 30 June 2014 ("FY2014")(&) . This outturn reflects the impact of previously announced events and trading updates.

Turnover for the half year was reported as down by approximately 21.9% on the comparable period and the outturn for the full year will reflect a similar performance. The core net loss(#) for the full year is expected to be more than double the core net loss of RMB193 million that was reported for the first six months of the year. This deterioration in the second half performance reflected the significant impact of the Huanglongbing disease infection at the Group's Xinfeng Plantation, announced on 15 April 2015 and 7 May 2015, and the damage sustained from Typhoon Rammasun and Typhoon Seagull which affected both production yield and selling price of the orange harvests, the average selling price of the Group's winter and summer oranges crop for FY2015 being approximately 15.2% lower as compared to FY2014.

The processed fruit business, which involves the manufacture and sale of fruit juice concentrates, purees and frozen fruit and vegetables, saw comparable sales tonnage decrease marginally compared to the prior year, but was loss making (FY2014: net profit of approximately RMB10 million), mainly due to (i) increased cost of raw materials owing to limited supplies; (ii) increased material scrap and maintenance costs caused by low productivity of the production equipment; and (iii) increased labour costs.

The assessment of the net change in fair value of biological assets for the FY2015 is still under review. The Board wishes to emphasise that the net change in fair value of biological assets is non-operational and does not have any effect on cash flow of the Group.

The information contained in this announcement is based only on the preliminary assessment of the unaudited financial information and management accounts of the Group for the FY2015 currently available to the Board. The audit now being conducted by the auditor of the Company on the management accounts has not yet been completed and the management accounts may still be subject to adjustments.

The annual results of the Group for FY2015 are expected to be published on 25 September 2015.

# Core net loss refers to loss of the Group for the year excluding impairment of goodwill, change in fair value of biological assets and share-based payments.

   &                 For the year ended 30 June 2014, turnover was approximately RMB1,271.2 million.

For further enquiries please contact:

 
 Asian Citrus                                       +852 2559 0323 
 Mark Ng, Executive Director and Chief Financial 
  Officer 
 
 Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (NOMAD and Broker)        +44 (0) 20 7894 7000 
 Rick Thompson / David Foreman (Corporate 
  Finance) 
 
   Weber Shandwick Financial                          +44 (0) 20 7067 0000 
 Nick Oborne, Stephanie Badjonat, Tom Jenkins

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

TSTPKCDPOBKKACK

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 09, 2015 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)

Asian Citrus (LSE:ACHL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024