Alicorp, Peru’s largest food and consumer goods producer, headed for its biggest weekly drop since 2008 as the company posted a surprise loss because of derivative and foreign-exchange losses.
The shares fell 3.8 per cent Thursday in Lima, extending this week’s slide to 11 per cent. The country’s benchmark Lima General Index rose 0.2 per cent Thursday.
The company, which makes Alacena mayonnaise and Casino cookies, said in a filing that it lost 228 million soles ($93.3 million) because of derivatives and another 35 million soles from currency depreciation. About 26 per cent of the company’s debt is denominated in dollars, according to Bank of Nova Scotia. The Peruvian sol has tumbled 9 per cent in the past 12 months.
“The results were affected by non-recurring costs,” Paul Figueroa, an analyst at Scotiabank, said in a telephone interview from Lima. “The derivatives issue has never happened before.”
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
