Novozymes , the world's biggest industrial enzymes producer, posted earnings at the low end of expectations on Thursday and warned of uncertainties in the global economic outlook, sending its shares to a near two-month low.

The Danish company, whose enzymes are used to produce consumer goods from detergent to biofuel, said its profits were held back by higher raw material costs, currency conversion effects and slack sales of bioenergy enzymes.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose 19% to 496 million crowns ($85.5 million) in October-December from 417 million a year earlier, falling short of an average expectation of 515 million in a Reuters poll of 10 analysts.

Jyske Bank kept a "reduce" recommendation on the stock, saying that growth in the bioenergy enzymes segment was disappointing even though the results overall looked in line with its expectations.

Novozymes said it expected full-year 2012 EBIT growth of between 9 and 12% and sales growth in Danish crowns of 7 to 11% -- noting the wide ranges reflected difficulties in anticipating global economic trends.

"The full-year 2012 expectations reflect uncertainty about the global economy, expressed by relatively wide intervals for sales and earnings growth guidance," it said in a statement.

Chief Executive Steen Riisgaard said in the statement Novozymes' products had been fairly resilient in earlier downturns but added: "We currently see scenarios at both the high and low end of the guidance."

Fourth-quarter revenue grew 8% year-on-year to 2.59 billion crowns, roughly matching analysts' average estimate of a rise to 2.60 million in the Reuters poll.

Bioenergy Enzymes Underperform

Sales of enzymes overall grew 6% in local currencies in 2011, but sales of bioenergy enzymes, used to make bioethanol, grew only 1% in local currency and fell 3% in Danish crown terms, Novozymes said.

"Growth in U.S.-produced ethanol volumes fell throughout the year -- which was also the case for Novozymes' Bioenergy Enzymes sales," the group said.

Novozymes, which has grown by supplying enzymes to bioethanol producers, said its sales outlook was based on a forecast that the U.S. biofuel industry would produce about 14.2 billion gallons of ethanol in 2012, up 2 to 3% from 2011.

"Full-year bioenergy enzymes sales should also benefit from the introduction of new and more efficient products and should be able to outpace the underlying growth in ethanol volumes," the company said.

Chief Financial Officer Benny Loft told Reuters the company expected to outpace the market for bioenergy enzymes mainly because it would introduce a new enzyme product for production of bioethanol in mid-2012.

Novozymes estimated the global industrial enzymes market grew in 2011 to be worth about 20 billion crowns, and kept its market share at roughly 47%, helped by a slight increase in feed and food enzymes and curbed by a slight decrease in its share of the U.S. biofuel ethanol market.

Novozymes' main competitor in biofuel enzymes is Danish company Danisco, which was acquired last year by U.S. chemicals giant DuPont.

Novozymes said its strategy was to acquire companies and technologies where it sees a fit in terms of technology or market access and said its balance sheet put it in a position to act "no matter the health of the financial markets."

"We don't have anything big in sight," Loft told Reuters. "We always have a palette of acquisitions that we are looking at ... The ones we are looking at are relatively small."