Halcyon Agri swings into the black for Q2

HALCYON Agri on Tuesday posted a net profit of US$2.3 million for the second quarter, versus a net loss of US$4.1 million a year ago. Operating profit was US$11.1 million, more than five times the US$2 million a year ago, on the back of increased investments in operational technology, the rubber supplier said.

For the three months ended June 30, earnings per share were 0.14 US cent versus a loss per share of 0.26 US cent a year ago. The mainboard-listed company's shares closed down S$0.02 or 4.5 per cent at S$0.42 on Thursday, before the long holiday weekend.

Revenue dropped 10.8 per cent to US$512.1 million from US$574.1 million a year ago, in line with a decrease in delivered volumes.

No dividend was declared for the quarter, same as a year ago.

For the first half of 2019, net loss was US$3.4 million compared with a loss of US$2.9 million a year ago. Revenue dropped 13.1 per cent to US$911.9 million versus US$1.05 billion.

The group said that while it maintains its focus on margin over volume, the outbreak of leaf blight (fusicoccum) and white root (rigidoporus microporus) diseases in Indonesia and abnormal weather patterns in Thailand have led to lower gross profit.

"Throughout 2019, we have been focusing on developing our technology investment strategy, which will allow Halcyon to bridge the requirements of three key stakeholder groups: smallholders, NGO's (non-governmental organisation) and our customer base," said Robert Meyer, executive director and chief executive officer, Halcyon Agri.

"By introducing a layer of digitisation at the factory and procurement level, we can capture provenance and production data and provide this to the marketplace in the form of a digital signature.

"This is the first step to generating data revenue for the supply chain and a milestone in our quest to de-commoditise this industry," added Mr Meyer.