WARRNAMBOOL Cheese and Butter has announced a profit while rival Murray Goulburn has made another tilt at buying the company.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday, WCB said it made a net profit after tax of $8.9 million, up $7.5 million or 535.7 per cent on the first half of 2009.WCB said the improved results reflected in part ``a normalisation in the first half of the 2010 financial year of the relationship between international commodity price and farmgate milk price following the disparity of the 2009 financial year.
WCB chief executive officer and managing director John McLean said it was a pleasing result following the difficult trading conditions experienced in the 2009 financial year.
``The collapse in the international commodity prices during the eight months to June 2009 carried into the 2010 financial year and although there has been some recent imrpvoement, prices have not returned to the levels experienced in the first half of the 2009 financial year.''
``Recent international commodity price improvements have also been moderated by the appreciating Australian dollar.''
WCB reported the total milk intake fo 521.1 million litres was down 6.8 per cent on the equivalent six months to December 2008.
WCB said the outlook for the full 2010 financial year was more positive than that of 2009.
Meawhile Murray Goulburn Co-operative confirmed it had put a revised proposal to WCB to acquire all WCB shares.
MGC Managing Director Stephen O’Rourke said the WCB Board was considering the revised proposal and said that MGC would make no further comment on the matter until the WCB Board’s processes had concluded.
