London-based Tate & Lyle PLC, which will report its first-half results on November 6, said it could miss projections about its first half profit due to plunging commodity prices and higher interest rates.

The sugar refiner & sweetener group said profits from ethanol in the US would also be lower oil-price dropped.

But, the company provided no information about completing its $260 million ethanol plant in Iowa.

Speaking his mind, Iain Ferguson, Tate & Lyle’s CEO, said, “As we indicated in July, our half-year results will not reach the level of the corresponding period which benefited from strong co-product revenues during the commodity price peaks of the summer 2008.”

The company is going to replace its CEO Iain Ferguson with Javed Ahmed, a former executive at Reckitt Benckiser, on October 1.

Shares in Tate & Lyle PLC slipped to 411 pence, losing 1 per cent in the recent trading.

It should be noted here that company’s shares hit a record low of 242 pence in March.