Tate and Lyle’s cut outlook sends shares crashing 17pc
Tate and Lyle has scaled back its financial outlook for 2014, sending shares tumbling almost 17 per cent.
Like Rolls Royce, the sweetener and ingredients supplier has said that it expects no profit growth this financial year, as growth seen in emerging markets was offset by “softness in developed ones”.
Last financial year, adjusted profit was £329m; no change this year will mean profit below analysts’ consensus estimate of £340m.
Trading of its Splenda sweetener has left a bitter aftertaste, as a competitive market forced its hand in making less financially successful deals over the year.
Tate and Lyle has said it expects the rate of price decline in Splenda to go up in the final quarter, with 2015 prices down around 15 per cent. It puts falling prices down to a “significant overhang of unsold Chinese sucralose” that’s bombarded the market.