Amsterdam Commodities N.V. (‘Acomo’ or the ‘Company’), the trading group listed at Euronext Amsterdam active in spices and nuts, food ingredients, tea and edible seeds, recorded consolidated sales of € 331.7 million in the first half of 2015 (‘HY 2015’) compared to € 306.4 million in the first half of 2014 (‘HY 2014’), an increase by 8.3%. Net profit was stable at € 17.2 million (HY 2014: € 17.3 million), a decrease by 0.8%. The earnings per share decreased by 1.5% from € 0.734 per share in HY 2014 to € 0.723 in HY 2015.
CEO Erik Rietkerk, “In the past six months, our companies faced market developments that posed the usual challenges. Whereas some segments had to trade in markets with increasing price levels, other segments faced the effects of high volumes following outstanding harvests. We kept focusing on providing our customers with a reliable supply of high quality products sourced from suppliers which have been part of our business proposition for many years. The net profit of € 17.2 million is again an excellent achievement. Our interim dividend of € 0.40 per share is in line with our interim dividend policy that was aligned last year”.
General developments
During the first six months of 2015, various developments affected Acomo’s activities. Unrest in the Eurozone with Greece becoming a point of focus, wars in various parts of the Middle East, political turmoil in North African countries and continuing attention for food safety requirements. All of those resulted in challenging situations within the respective supply chains. In Europe, economic stabilization continued with North America showing promising signs of recovery. The US dollar to euro exchange rate strengthened significantly affecting price levels in Europe. Price level developments per product group again showed a diverse pattern of volatility showing trends ranging from steep declines – in for example various edible seeds and agro commodity markets – to stabilization and for some products – such as several spices and nuts – increases which could be substantial.
The trend of lower commodity price levels, led by lower oil price levels, continued with climatic and political developments affecting harvests and traded volumes. It should be noted that in many cases, our food commodities represent only a relatively small part of consumer end products. This has a stabilizing effect on our sales and volumes.
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