Business
Sun Gro Horticulture Income Fund Releases 2007 Fourth Quarter and Year-end Results; Financial Performance Severely Impacted by the Weakening US Dollar and Economy; Fund Announces Reduction in Cash Distributions
TRADING SYMBOL: Toronto Stock Exchange - GRO.UN Sun Gro Horticulture Income Fund will hold a conf...
About this update from Coloured Ties Capital Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTRADING SYMBOL: Toronto Stock Exchange - GRO.UN\n\n\nSun Gro Horticulture Income Fund will hold a conference call and webcast\n\n\nto discuss 2007 fourth quarter and full-year results on March 27, 2008 at\n\n\n7:30 am Pacific Time (10:30 am Eastern). The call can be accessed by\n\n\ndialing: 1-800-731-5319 or 416-644-3421.\n\n\nA replay will be available through April 10, 2008 at: 1-877-289-8525 or\n\n\n416-640-1917. Passcode: 21263433 followed by the pound sign\n\n\nTo access the live and archived webcast, please go to:\n\n\nhttp://www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID(equal sign)126151 or to\n\n\nthe fund's website at: www.sungro.com.\n\n\nVANCOUVER, March 26 /CNW/ - Sun Gro Horticulture Income Fund (the Fund)\ntoday reported financial results for the three and 12 months ended\nDecember 31, 2007. The three-month period represents the final quarter of its\n2007 fiscal year. During 2007, the Fund's wholly-owned subsidiary, Sun Gro\nHorticulture Canada Ltd. (Sun Gro, or the company) delivered strong revenue\ngrowth, reflecting the company's progress in expanding its manufacturing\npresence into key US horticultural markets. However, the Fund's distributable\ncash flow was severely eroded by the rapid strengthening of the Canadian\ndollar in the fourth quarter and by the effect of the collapse in US housing\nstarts on the nursery segment of Sun Gro's business. This erosion is\ncontinuing into 2008. Accordingly, the Fund has announced a temporary 50%\nreduction in its monthly cash distributions to unitholders to $0.0375 per\nunit, effective with the April 2008 distribution, payable in mid-May 2008. Sun\nGro's trustees believe it is prudent to maintain a payout ratio of 85% to 90%\nand Sun Gro's recent performance does not support the current rate of\ndistribution.\n\n\n"Over 80% of our sales are to customers in the US and, despite achieving\na 9% year-over-year increase in our average fourth quarter US dollar prices,\nexcluding our acquired businesses in California and Florida, we simply were\nnot able to keep our product pricing in step with the weakening of the US\ndollar," said Mitch Weaver, Sun Gro's President and CEO, and a Trustee of the\nFund. "In light of the year-over-year decline in our fourth quarter financial\nperformance, our growing concerns about housing starts in some of our key US\nmarket...