DUBLIN, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Irish food ingredients
multinational Kerry Group on Tuesday warned its revenue
in China was likely to be down 30% in the first three months of
the year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
That is equivalent to around 0.5% of global revenue in its
core Taste & Nutrition unit, which earned over 80% of its global
revenues of 7.2 billion euros, Chief Executive Officer Edmond
Scanlon told analysts in a conference call.
Kerry's five manufacturing facilities in China are working
with a skeleton staff and the firm was monitoring the situation
closely, Scanlon said.
Asked if there was likely to be a bounce in revenue once
restrictions related to the virus are lifted, Scanlon said it
was "probably a little bit too early to say".
Kerry on Tuesday reported its trading profit for 2019 was up
12.1 percent to 903 million euros while earnings per share on a
constant currency basis were up 8.3% to 393.7 cents.
It said once the impact of coronavirus disruption was taken
into account, it expected to achieve adjusted earnings per share
growth in 2020 of 5% to 9% on a constant currency basis.
Goodbody Stockbrokers said that while the impact of
coronavirus remained uncertain, that it was likely to adjust its
2020 growth forecast of 9% EPS growth by around 1 percentage
point to reflect the China backdrop.
Kerry Group shares were up 3.7% at 1040 GMT.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by David Evans)