French sugar and ethanol cooperative Tereos reported a loss of €590 million for 2025/26 and warned that business conditions could become even more challenging in 2026/27 due to weak sugar prices and rising costs.
The company said its revenue declined to €5.13 billion in 2025/26 from €5.93 billion in the previous year. Tereos attributed the sharp reversal from profit to loss to lower sugar prices, reduced sugarcane volumes in Brazil, currency fluctuations and a €499 million non-cash impairment charge, Finimize reported.
Tereos also projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of between €275 million and €350 million for 2026/27, compared with €416 million in the previous year.
The company's performance reflects broader pressure across the global sugar sector. European sugar producer Suedzucker had also recently warned that weak market conditions may continue after global sugar prices fell to five-year lows in April amid strong supply. European sugar prices have dropped by nearly 40% over the past two years.
Tereos said its leverage ratio, which measures debt against earnings, increased sharply to 5.4 times from 2.8 times earlier.
To manage financial pressure, the cooperative plans to reduce capital expenditure, intensify cost-cutting measures and sell non-core assets while aiming to keep net debt broadly stable between €2.2 billion and €2.4 billion during 2026/27.
The company said it expects a gradual improvement in market conditions from 2027 onwards, with a target of bringing leverage closer to three times by 2028.
Tereos also indicated that its ability to continue investing in sugar and ethanol operations, particularly in Brazil where conditions are expected to worsen, will depend heavily on recovery in global sugar prices.