Tate & Lyle trading on target

Tate & Lyle has issued a trading update for the six months ending September 2008 ahead of the announcement of the interim results due in November 2008 in light of the board change announcement.

Iain Ferguson, chief executive, said,“The Group continues to trade satisfactorily. We expect profits from the Group’s continuing operations in the first half year to be broadly in line with the corresponding period in the prior year and our own expectations.
“At our Food Industrial Ingredients, Europe division, the corn wet milling operations benefited from improved co-product returns and falling corn costs, although the average net corn cost was higher than in the corresponding prior year period.
“The Food Systems businesses (Hahn and Cesalpinia) continued to perform well. All EU sugar businesses, as widely reported, continue to operate in a very difficult market. Gas prices at the UK refinery have continued to be higher than expected. We remain confident that, during the second half of the year, market equilibrium between supply and demand for EU sugar will be restored, which should lead to progressively firmer refining margins. The molasses business is again performing strongly, experiencing strong demand from customers despite lower EU cereal prices.