Halcyon's Q3 back in black with US$47,000 profit

Halcyon Agri turned around a year-ago loss to post a US$47,000 net profit in the third quarter on the back of its newly acquired trading business, the rubber producer announced on Wednesday after the market closed.

Halcyon had posted a quarterly loss of US$12.2 million a year earlier. For the quarter ended September 2015, per-share earnings was 0.01 US cent.

Net profit for the first nine months of the year was US$4.5 million, or 1.07 US cents per share, a reversal from the year-ago net loss of US$11.2 million.

Quarterly revenue rose 141.6 per cent to 274.6 million mostly due to an increase in sales volume to 183,833 tonnes from a year-ago 66,650 tonnes. The additional tonnage came mostly from the company's distribution segment, a business that the company acquired in the interim. Revenue per tonne, however, fell to US$1,494 in the third quarter of 2015 from US$1,705 from a year earlier.

Halcyon said the price environment remains "challenging, disconnected from fundamentals and extremely volatile". The company expects the ongoing integration of its supply chain, including the distribution business, to drive results for the rest of the year.

Shares of Halcyon gained 3.6 per cent or 2.5 Singapore cents on Wednesday to close at 72 Singapore cents before the results were announced.