Halcyon Agri sinks into the red for Q2

BLEAK market conditions have sunk rubber-supplier Halcyon Agri into the red for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018. The mainboard-listed firm on Monday chalked up a loss of US$4.1 million, in contrast with a net profit of US$1.6 million a year ago.

Revenue rose marginally to US$574.1 million despite sales volume increasing 26.9 per cent to 374,216 tonnes. This was due to lower revenue per tonne - from US$1,946 a year ago to US$1,534 this quarter, in line with the movement of natural rubber market price during these periods.

The slide in performance for the quarter was also attributed to a non-recurrence of share of profit of associate, the additional operating expenses from the newly acquired and incorporated subsidiaries, as well as unrealised foreign exchange loss arising from the strengthening of the US dollar against local currencies - mainly the Indonesian rupiah, the euro, and Thai baht.

Halcyon Agri reported a loss per share of 0.26 US cent, compared to an earnings per share of 0.10 US cent in Q2 2017. The counter last closed on Aug 8 at S$0.515.