Nufarm profit up, share buyback announced

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased by more than 14% to A$162.95 million, and earnings per share - on an operating basis - increased from 29.4 cents to 33.8 cents.

The company reported an increase in turnover of 2.7% to A$1.268 billion from its global crop protection, industrial, and fine and performance chemical divisions. 45% of revenues were generated in Europe and North America.

Managing director, Doug Rathbone, says the results reflect fundamental strength in Nufarm's core businesses.

"The Australian crop protection business has continued its strong profit growth, and is providing a reliable earnings stream to help Nufarm expand into key overseas markets."

"While the Australian market is increasingly competitive, Nufarm has succeeded in growing market share across its core products and increased turnover by 11% on a year to year basis."

The results include the first full year profit contribution from the Riverdale Chemicals subsidiary, based in Chicago, which produces non-crop products for the turf, golf course, railways and municipal parks market in the United States.

Nufarm's directors also announced a limited on-market share buyback program, with up to 5% of the company's issued capital approved for purchase over the next six months.

Mr Rathbone said the share buyback will form part of the group's capital management program, and reflects the company's view that its shares are significantly undervalued.

The result is the first since the company shifted its head office from New Zealand to Australia, and changed its balance date from the end of May to the end of July.

A final dividend of 11 cents per share has been declared.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

Nufarm expects court sign-off on A$46.6M class action tomorrow
Nufarm expects flat first-half profit but better full-year result
Ciao NUF and PDL