Plant Impact (PIM) made steady progress in the six months to the end of January, and is steadily diversifying its product range away from Veritas, its soy plant enhancer. Most of its sales are made in Brazil, and while orders were up by 40 per cent, shipments were down from a year earlier because its partner, Bayer CropScience, has adopted a through-season delivery schedule rather than receiving a whole year's orders in the first half. This means that, with shipments still to be made, second half revenue will benefit by around £2m.
A second-generation enhancer called Fortalis was launched during the period, with Argentina selected as a test-marketing region, and after the half-year end Fortalis was launched in the US, the world's largest soybean market, and where sales will be made through three of the market's leading distributors. Other products include Banzai, a cocoa crop enhancement product now in its second year of commercial sales, and shipments have increased significantly from a year earlier.
Increased marketing and research pushed operating expenses up by a half to £4.2m, although cash balances were up from the July year-end, thanks to £1m of UK tax credits and the unwinding of working capital.
Analysts at Peel Hunt are forecasting adjusted pre-tax losses of £0.6m for the year to July 2017 and flat earnings per share (from £0.2m loss and 0.3p EPS in 2016).
| PLANT IMPACT (PIM) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 49.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £40m | |
| TOUCH: | 49-50p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 60p | LOW: 43p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 10.4p* | NET CASH: | £6m | |
| Half-year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4.22 | 0.19 | 0.55 | nil |
| 2016 | 4.91 | -0.98 | -0.83 | nil |
| % change | +16 | - | - | - |
*Includes intangible assets of £3.69m, or 4.5p a share | ||||
