Pacific Ethanol posts wider Q2 loss, guides for higher margins

Pacific Ethanol Inc (NASDAQ:PEIX) saw its second-quarter consolidated net loss expand to USD 14.6 million (EUR 12.6m) from USD 9.9 million a year back amid the challenging market conditions.

The California-based ethanol producer said on Wednesday that net loss available to common stockholders amounted to USD 13.2 million, widening from USD 9.2 million. It swung into a gross loss for the three months to USD 1.3 million from a profit of USD 1.7 million in the year-ago period and booked a decline in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to USD 996,000 from USD 2.6 million.

Net sales rose to USD 410.5 million from USD 405.2 million.

President and chief executive Neil Koehler explained that short-term demand for ethanol, both on the domestic and export markets, was impacted by “questionable” regulatory actions. Nevertheless, he said that the market fundamentals remain strong, triggering expectations for increased production margins in the second half of the year, and noted that Pacific Ethanol benefits from higher product diversification that supports stronger margins and reduces exposure to commodity price fluctuations in the fuel ethanol markets.

For the first half of 2018, Pacific Ethanol reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of USD 21.4 million, slightly narrower than the USD 22.1 million loss from a year earlier as revenues improved to USD 810.5 million from USD 791.5 million.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.861)

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