Australia's United Malt falls on guidance cut, low sales volume

United Malt

27/04/2023 03:52

(Adds comments from UBS)
    ** Shares of United Malt Group  UMG.AX  fall as much as 6.2%
to A$4.36, their biggest intraday pct drop since Nov. 16
        ** Stock among top five losers in the ASX 200 benchmark
index  .AXJO 
  
        ** UMG at its lowest level since March 24; on track to
fall for a second straight day if trends hold
  
    ** Co expects 1H23 underlying EBITDA of about A$51 mln
($33.69 mln), below prior guidance of between A$58 mln and A$66
mln
    ** Guidance cut due to lower volumes and delay in start of
Inverness facility
    ** Also expects SaaS costs for 1H23 to be about A$6.8 mln,
higher than previously anticipated
    ** Says Q1 sales were 6% to 8% lower than expected,
reflecting lower beer demand
    ** UBS says while it anticipated Q1 beer demand to be soft,
based on brewer commentary and our industry feedback, it did not
expect the impact to be as large as UMG indicated
        ** Adds the fall in Q1 volumes would be an even larger
decline when compared to pre-COVID levels
  
    ** UMG up 34% this year, as of last close

($1 = 1.5138 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))