Omnicane's profit declines 3.7%

Omnicane Ltd. (MTMD), a Mauritian producer of sugar and electricity, said profit for the year through December fell 3.7 percent, as its output of the sweetener suffered from lower revenue and increased employee costs.

Net income retreated to 248.9 million rupees ($8.7 million) from 258.4 million rupees a year earlier, it said in a statement on the Port Louis-based Stock Exchange of Mauritius’s website today. Revenue advanced to 3.48 billion rupees from 3.19 billion rupees, it said.

“Lower raw-sugar revenue and higher employee costs” caused “a loss of 81.5 million rupees for the sugar segment” that was partly offset by the 7 percent improvement in profit by the energy unit, the company said in the statement.

Omnicane, which owns and operates one of the two refineries on the Indian Ocean island nation, expects sugar production to decline 10 percent in 2011 following “the adverse climatic conditions which prevailed at the start of the year.”

The group forecasts its energy unit will perform at “the same level as in 2010,” when operating profit rose to 696.7 million rupees from 650.2 million rupees a year earlier.

“The completion of the flexi-factory at La Baraque with an ethanol plant remains a priority for the Group whilst two regional projects are being considered,” it said.