Thursday, agribusiness company Syngenta AG (SYT) reported an increase in its third-quarter sales, helped by 47% growth in the sales of seeds. At constant exchange rates, the company's sales climbed 28%. The company also reaffirmed its earnings per share target for fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
In the third quarter, the company's sales jumped to $2.28 billion from $1.7 billion in the year-ago period.
Quarterly sales in the crop protection division rose 31% to $1.88 billion from $1.44 billion in the previous year. On a constant exchange rate basis, the growth was 26%.
Sales of seeds surged to $417 million from $283 million in the prior year. At constant exchange rate, sales were 41% up.
In the first nine months of fiscal 2008, Syngenta's sales increased 29% to $95.72 billion from $73.99 billion a year earlier. At constant exchange rate, sales rose 22%.
For the nine-month period, sales of crop protection business climbed 29% to $74.29 billion from $57.39 billion in the comparable period last year. Sales growth on a constant exchange rate basis was 22%.
Nine-month sales of seeds division were up 27% to $21.56 billion from $17.01 billion in the previous year. At constant exchange rate, sales rose 20%.
Looking ahead, Mike Mack, chief executive officer, stated, "The fundamental drivers for agriculture remain unchanged, with rising food and feed demand inevitably requiring increased use of agricultural technology in a context of limited land availability. Our confidence in Syngenta's near term as well as its longer term performance allows us to reaffirm our target for earnings per share, excluding 2007 non-recurring income, restructuring, impairment and share repurchase program, growth of more than 35% in 2008 and high teens in 2009."
SYT closed Wednesday's regular trade at $27.60, down $2.96 or 9.69%, on a volume of 1.16 million shares. In the after hours session, the company's shares rose $0.90 or 3.26%.
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