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Inghams Group (ASX:ING) comes home to roost with strong interim results

Agriculture, Consumer Discretionary
ASX:ING      MCAP $1.408B
20 February 2021 02:00 (AEST)

Inghams Group (ING) has ended the week on high, after revealing strong growth in its statutory profit and earnings over H1 FY21.

The poultry producer tabled a net profit after tax (NPAT) of $35.3 million, an increase of 34.7 per cent compared to the last half-year period.

ING’s statutory earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) also grew by 5 per cent year on year to total $215.6 million.

Ingham’s CEO and Managing Director, Jim Leighton, said it’s a pleasing result considering some of the challenges the company faced in the last six months.

“These results have been delivered despite the continued impact of COVID-19, ongoing high realised feed prices and the partial closure of Australia’s poultry export channels due to industry Biosecurity issues in Victoria,” he explained.

“Our team proudly fulfilled its role as an essential service provider throughout COVID-19 disruptions that occurred during the half-year, maintaining supply to customers with operations fully maintained across Australia and New Zealand since re-opening of our Thomastown facility on August 3,” he added.

The chicken company believes feed prices will only drop a modest amount over H2 FY21, as demand remains high despite a bumper harvest at the end of 2020.

Any drop in feed prices would likely be appreciated by the business, which ended December with a 5.6 per cent increase in group core poultry volume when compared to the end of September.

Meanwhile, Inghams ended the half-year period with a $12.8 million increase in debt, with net debt now totalling $327.5 million. The extra debt is being blamed on the ongoing construction of two new hatcheries in Victoria and WA.

ING has also decided to issue an interim dividend of 7.5 cents per share, an increase of 2.7 per cent compared to last year’s half-year dividend.

Shares in Inghams Group have ended the week up 3.59 per cent, buoyed by Friday’s strong half-year report, with shares trading at $3.75 each.

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