Unfortunately for its shareholders, ALS Ltd (ASX: ALQ) shares are being sold off on Thursday morning.
In early trade, the ASX 200 share was down as much as 12% to $13.09.
Why is this ASX 200 share crashing?
Investors have been hitting the sell button today after the $6.5 billion testing services company released a trading update.
According to the release, the company's key Commodities business has been having a tough time of late.
Management notes that the Commodities business has recently encountered volume headwinds within the Minerals division. It advised that volumes in geochemistry and metallurgy remain patchy and fluctuations have become even more pronounced in July and August.
This is particularly the case in Australia and Latin America and has resulted in volume declines and margin pressure in these markets. Thankfully, North American volumes have been more stable and are holding in line with the prior corresponding period.
At present, Minerals margins are down on the prior corresponding period but remain resilient at approximately 30%.
What else?
Things have been better for its Life Sciences business. The company revealed that organic growth in Life Sciences (especially Environmental) has been in line with expectations.
In addition, the integration of the recent acquisitions of Nuvisan, Wessling, and York are on track. Nuvisan is starting to see some positive medium and long-term improvement in the business development pipeline.
However, as expected, these acquisitions will be earnings per share dilutive in FY 2025 after taking into account initial trading and all relevant interest costs.
The ASX 200 share also advised that corporate costs are broadly in line with guidance. However, interest expense is tracking slightly above expectations due to higher average debt levels and lease interest costs from recent acquisitions.
Outlook
The sum of the above is management expecting its FY 2025 first half underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to be slightly ahead of the prior corresponding period.
However, its underlying net profit after tax is expected to be down by ~5% during the half.
A further update on its full year outlook for FY 2025 will be provided with the half year results, which are scheduled to be released to the market on 19 November.
Despite today's selloff, ALS' shares have still outperformed the market over the past 12 months. During this period, the ASX 200 share has risen by approximately 18%, whereas the benchmark is up 13% year on year.
