Shares of sweetener maker Evolva sour after revenue warning

EvoNext Holdings SA

10/01/2017 09:15

ZURICH, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Food additive maker Evolva's 
 EVE.S  shares tumbled more than a fifth in early trading on 
Tuesday after the Swiss company issued a profit warning and said 
its stevia-based sweetener Eversweet will not be launched until 
2018.  
    The shares fell as much as 22 percent after the maker of the 
sugar substitute said 2016 revenue would come in at around 10 
million Swiss francs ($9.87 million), a third less than had been 
expected in August. 
    Evolva had said in March that Eversweet's launch would be 
delayed beyond 2016 due to production hurdles, including 
bringing costs down to meet customers' expectations, but on 
Tuesday it said it will not hit the market until 2018. 
    Evolva will launch Eversweet with its manufacturing partner 
U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill  CARG.UL , it said, though the 
2018 plan is subject to the successful conclusion of "ongoing 
negotiations" between the two companies by this spring. 
    It also said 2016 sales of other products including 
nootkatone, a fragrance ingredient, and dietary supplement 
resveratrol had missed the company's projections. 
    "This newsflow is very disappointing," analysts at Bank 
Vontobel in Zurich said in a note. "Uncertainty regarding stevia 
has clearly increased and we see the probability of success of 
this product reducing." 
    Evolva said in a statement that it "believes it has a good 
financial position going into 2017 and expects an uptick in both 
product and partnership revenues."  
    It said it still has about 47 million francs in cash. 
 
 
($1 = 1.0129 Swiss francs) 
 
 (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Susan Fenton) 
 ((zurich.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 7336;)) 
 
Keywords: EVOLVA WARNING/