Enzymes producer firm Novozymes presented lower-than-expected earnings on Wednesday on what its CEO considered "weak sales."
Its earnings before interest and tax stood at 973 million Danish crowns ($142 million) in the third quarter of this year. This is lower than the 1.03 billion Danish crowns that a Reuters poll had forecast.
"It's, of course, weak sales in the third quarter," Peder Holk Nielsen, CEO of Novozymes, told CNBC on Wednesday.
The company's shares took a hammering in early trade Wednesday down 11.5 percent.
"It's mainly due to bioenergy in the U.S. and the situation keeps deteriorating as our customers are living through a very difficult time," Nielsen added.
The Danish firm lowered once again its full-year growth sales expectations to a range between 0 and 1 percent, from a 1 and 3 percent gap. In August, the Danish firm lowered its sales guidance for 2016 from between 3-5 percent and 2-4 percent.
Novozymes has been struggling to cope with the consequences of low oil and crop prices.
However, the company's CEO guaranteed that the situation would not be getting worse.
"We think we are seeing the bottom of it. It's not getting any worse, but we were hoping for a bit of tailwind from our innovation in the third quarter," Nielsen said.
Last month, Novozymes acquired the German-based Organobalance a microbial research, for an undisclosed amount.