PURE.L Regulatory News (PURE)

PURECIRCLE LIMITED

TRADING UPDATE

PureCircle (LSE: PURE), the world's largest producer and marketer of high purity stevia ingredients, today provides a trading update in respect of the six month period from 1 July 2013 to 31 December 2013, being the first half of its Financial Year 2014 (1H FY14). The Company's interim results for 1H FY14 will be announced on Wednesday 19 March 2014.

Sales

Sales in 1H FY14 are expected to be $34.7m, an increase of 31% against 1H FY13 ($26.4m* - see note below).

There was growth in sales across all high purity ingredients primarily driven by new innovations in our proprietary Stevia 3.0 TM portfolio of all-natural, no-calorie sweeteners and natural flavor systems. By region, EMEA, Latin America, Asia Pacific and USA all recorded sales growth.

Sales volumes: In 1H FY14 total volumes of high purity stevia sweeteners and natural flavors are expected to increase by 34% against 1H FY13.

EBITDA

The benefits of the increase in sales are expected to flow through the Profit and Loss account with the Group moving to positive Operating Profit and EBITDA.

Cash, net debt and funding headroom

The Group ended 1H FY14 with net debt of $86m and cash and facility headroom of $58m. The Group is sufficiently funded for its current expansion plans.

Commenting on the 1H FY14 trading, the Group CEO Magomet Malsagov said:  1H FY14 we continued on our path of systematic growth with increase in sales and improvements in profitability.

Our strategy of introducing new and innovative ingredients and solutions to meet identified market needs is continuing to win business for PureCircle and to increase the overall market share for high purity stevia. The success of our innovations is underpinned by our R&D capabilities, uniquely integrated supply chain, global customer service infrastructure and smart partnerships. The recent GRAS Letter of No Objection from the U.S. FDA for Rebaudioside M a new, zero-calorie sweetener from the stevia leaf jointly developed by The Coca-Cola Company and PureCircle is an important milestone for us and is another example of our ongoing commitment to sweetener innovation and our global commitment to offering solutions to help food and beverage industry to develop more reduced, low and no-calorie food and beverage options. We are generating revenues from a wide range of natural sweetener and flavor products and from a wide range of customers directly and through our business partners.

With accelerating roll-outs of food and beverage products using PureCircle's high purity stevia solutions, particularly in the important carbonated soft drink category, the Company is confident of continued sales growth and with it improvements in profitability.

*Note that 1H FY13 sales have been restated to reflect the Company's adoption of the new IFRS accounting policy for Joint Ventures. This has the effect of reducing 1H FY13 sales by $1m