Sugar refiner and sweetener maker Tate & Lyle said yesterday profit before tax for the four months to the end of January was marginally ahead of its expectations, thanks to good performance in the Americas.

Tate, which issued three profit warnings last year due to the slower growth of its Splenda sweetener and high corn prices, reiterated yesterday that the second half results would be broadly similar to that of the first half, thanks to a recovery in its Americas ingredients operations.

Its first half, pretax profit from continuing operations was 117 million pounds (US$230.4 million).

"The Food & Industrial Ingredients, Americas, division continues to perform well and was ahead of our expectations with strong performances from both value added food ingredients and commodity products," Tate said.