Plant Health Care's flagging shares rebounded after the agrichemicals group, which counts Monsanto among its clients, said a marketing revamp was bearing fruit, and that it had sufficient cash to carry it through to profitability.

The group, whose products aim to enhance a plant's own capabilities to see off pests or take up nutrients, said sales for the January-to-April period were 20% higher than a year before, with "a particularly strong contribution from Europe and Mexico".

And thanks to a decision to switch away from discounted forward sales of its products, margins had improved too, by 4%.

Furthermore, Plant Health reassured over its finances, saying it had $18m in cash, following the sale of a US landscape business, up $5.0m from the end of December.

"The cash resources are sufficient to enable the company to fulfil its current strategy of securing licensing agreements with strong partners and to reach profitability," the group said.

Monsanto damage 

Plant Health said that its directors had "noted the recent weakness in the company's share price" - which closed on Wednesday at an all-time low of 41.5p - "and wish to reassure shareholders that current trading is in line with the board's and the market's expectations".

And the statement received a positive response from broker Evolution Securities, which blamed the poor performance on a hangover from a profit warning last year, following slow sales of Monsanto's genetically modified Roundup Ready 2 soybean seed, which came with harpin as a treatment.

"The market has punished Plant Health Care's shares because of Monsanto's problematic launch of the RR2 soybean seed," Evolution analyst Philip Sparks said.

"In doing so, it has overlooked Plant Health Care's numerous successes of the last 12 months - two major contracts with Syngenta, a new distribution model with Monsanto, and several smaller customers."

IPO comparator 

"If it came to the market today, with its unique proven technology and contracts with Monsanto and Syngenta, Plant Health Care would IPO on a much higher valuation than this," Mr Sparks added, restating a "buy" rating on the group's shares, with a price target of 150p.

The stock, which as of Wednesday's close had lost 37% this year, recovered 13.3% to close at 47p in London.