Jerry Maycock, managing director at Australian CSR Ltd. has announced that the company will not put its Viridian glass unit up for sale after writing down its carrying value by AUSD 250 million in its…
Jerry Maycock, managing director at Australian CSR Ltd. has announced that the company will not put its Viridian glass unit up for sale after writing down its carrying value by AUSD 250 million in its first fiscal half. CSR had previously reported a net loss of AUD 155.6 million in the six months ended 30 September 2009, compared to a net profit of AUD 32.9 million for the same period in 2008, due to the write-down on its glass business and reduced earnings from its building products unit. Maycock informed during a conference call that after the company announced a AUD 375 million equity-raising in preparation for a spin-off of its sugar and renewable energy units, it had decided to write down the value of Viridian due to its recent performance and a review of forecasts, particularly regarding the Australian dollar currently trading above 90 US cents, as well as the slow commercial building market been slow for a number of years. “We have been pretty pragmatic about that carrying value and wanted to make sure that going into this bigger transaction we covered all the questions about carrying value,” he said. “The strategy of that business is sound and forms an important part of our building products portfolio so it is most unlikely that we would consider (a sale),” Maycock told reporters. Maycock refused to comment on the possibility of further write-downs on the glass business, but said that CSR expects Viridian to contribute to earnings in the next fiscal year.