To follow the market trend you require the latest market information. Our market news provides you with up to date information as to what obtains in every market.
[2007-09-18] Morocco's Cosumar H1 profit more than doubles Moroccan sugar producer Cosumar said on Friday its first-half net profit more than doubled as higher sales and a cost-cutting drive outweighed charges for the closure of an underperforming factory.
Net income rose to 188.9 million dirhams from 91.4 million dirhams in the same period a year earlier under new IFRS accounting standards, the company said in a statement.
Sales climbed 13 percent to 2.75 billion dirhams and operating profit was up 39 percent at 327 million dirhams. The company said it took a charge to cover costs for the closure its Souk Sebt plant.
Cosumar, controlled by diversified Moroccan conglomerate ONA, acquired four underperforming state sugar refineries two years ago and has annual white sugar refining capacity of 2,000 tonnes per day.
It plans to invest 1.6 billion dirhams over five years to expand domestic cane and beet growing and trim imports.
Morocco consumes 1.1 million tonnes of sugar per year, 47 percent of it grown locally and the rest imported, mostly from Brazil.
"The completion of the sugar harvest under good conditions and the pursuit of the implementation of synergies from the INDIMAGE 2012 project allows us to envisage an improvement in results in 2007," the company said.
Cosumar shares were yet to trade on the Casablanca stock market, whose benchmark MASI index was up 1 percent at 1123 GMT.
