Givaudan shares fall as sales growth stabilises in Q2
Recasts with sales growth and share reaction, adds analyst comments in paragraphs 3 and 8, CFO comment in paragraph 5
By Matteo Allievi and Jagoda Darlak
July 23 (Reuters) -Shares in Swiss fragrance and flavour maker Givaudan GIVN.S fell as much as 6% on Tuesday as its second-quarter sales growth showed signs of stabilisation after a strong start to the year.
From January to June, its sales rose 12.5% to 3.74 billion Swiss francs ($4.20 billion) on a like-for-like basis, roughly in line with analysts' consensus. But its second-quarter growth slowed slightly to 12.3% from 12.6% in the first three months of the year.
"Even though the consensus collected by the company was met, some investors were probably expecting a bit more in terms of growth in the second quarter," Vontobel analyst Arben Hasanaj said, pointing to some "deceleration" in the business growth.
Sales at Givaudan's Taste & Wellbeing business, which makes up more than a half of its revenue, were up by almost 10% from a year earlier, while sales at the Fragrance & Beauty unit rose 15.3%, both on a like-for-like basis.
The group's fine fragrance business has grown 60% since pre-COVID times thanks to great demand over the past four years, particularly in the Middle East, Chief Financial Officer Tom Hallam told Reuters in an interview.
Givaudan's half-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 18.7% to 906 million Swiss francs on a reported basis, ahead of analysts' average forecast of 875 million francs.
Its core profit margin rose to 24.8% on a comparable basis, from 22.7% a year earlier, helped by higher cost absorption thanks to higher volumes.
"From here, we expect volume growth to start to ease as comparisons get tougher, and margin to come down in 2H on seasonality and higher growth investments," Citi analysts said in a note.
A wave of destocking amid softer demand hit Givaudan's volumes last year, but strong sales growth has boosted its profitability since then.
The group also said its current head of corporate finance and business development, Stewart Harris, would take over as the CFO from Aug. 1, succeeding Hallam who will retire.
($1 = 0.8898 Swiss francs)
Reporting by Matteo Allievi and Jagoda Darlak in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
