LÄNNEN TEHTAAT PLC Financial Statements Bulletin 16 February 2012 at 8.30 (EET)

Fourth quarter (October-December) in brief:

• Consolidated fourth-quarter net sales came to EUR 80.4 (87.9) million, which was a year-on-year decrease of almost 9%.
• Operating profit, excluding non-recurring items, came to EUR 4.6 (5.1) million; non-recurring items totalled EUR 0.6 (0.0) million.
• Profit for the quarter was EUR 4.4 (4.4) million, and earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.69 (0.71).

Financial year (January–December) in brief:

• Consolidated net sales for 2011 amounted to EUR 335.5 (308.7) million, which was a year-on-year increase of almost 9%.
• Operating profit, excluding non-recurring items, came to EUR 9.8 (8.3) million; non-recurring items totalled EUR -1.1 (0.0) million.
• Profit for the year came to EUR 5.7 (6.5) million, and earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.92 (1.04).

The Board of Directors will propose to the Annual General Meeting that a dividend of EUR 0.85 (0.90) per share be paid.

The information in this bulletin has not been audited. The figures in parentheses are the equivalent figures for the same period a year earlier, unless stated otherwise.

Key figures

Matti Karppinen, CEO:

“The Group’s operating profit, excluding non-recurring items, showed a year-on-year improvement, as anticipated. The final quarter was the strongest, which is typically the case, although it was slightly down on the previous year.

The full-year result for the Seafood business was particularly gratifying, climbing into profit in the final quarter. Seafood’s improved performance was from its operations in Finland, where the determined efforts to develop the business and improve efficiency bore fruit. The Grains and Oilseeds business posted an extremely good result: it’s best ever full-year profit. The profit in Frozen Foods was almost at the previous year’s level, while Other Operations turned in a result that was significantly down year on year, due to the weak figure for associated company profits. The associated company Sucros performed disappointingly; the associated company profit decreased by over 70%.

Besides Seafood’s growth and profit improvement, the year’s other successes included the Kotimaiset frozen product range and the frozen vegetables and new frozen ready meals for the hotel, restaurant and catering sector, sales of which grew considerably, and also the completion and start-up of the packaging plant at the Kirkkonummi vegetable oil mill.”

Outlook for 2012

The Group’s net sales will be affected particularly by the level of activity in the grain and oilseed markets and by changes in the price level of grains and oilseeds.

Thanks to the measures taken to develop the Group’s different businesses, the full-year operating profit, excluding non-recurring items, is expected to be higher than the previous year.

The accrual of Lännen Tehtaat’s annual profit is typically weighted towards the end of the year, due to the nature of operations in the Frozen Foods business, the Seafood business and the associated company Sucros. The accrual of profit in 2012 is expected to be weighted more strongly towards the end of the year than it was in 2011.  During the first six months of 2012, the Grains and Oilseeds business is not expected to reach the record high profit level of 2011. Profit performance in the Seafood and Frozen Foods businesses is expected to continue its steady improvement, although the result in the Norwegian and Swedish Seafood business will be burdened by high raw material costs in the early part of the year.

Board of Directors’ dividend proposal  

The parent company’s distributable funds totalled EUR 87,683,571.91 on 31 December 2011, of which EUR 8,740,302.05 is profit for the financial year.

The Board of Directors’ proposal is that a dividend of EUR 0.85 per share be distributed for 2011. The Board will propose that a total of EUR 5,259,439.60 be distributed in dividends and that EUR 82,424,132.31 be left in equity. The proposed dividend is 92.4% of the earnings per share.

No dividend will be paid on shares held by the company.

New publication practice

In compliance with the new publication practice permitted under Financial Supervisory Authority standard 5.2b, Lännen Tehtaat plc is publishing its Financial Statements Bulletin as a PDF attachment to this stock exchange release.

The Financial Statements Bulletin is also available on the company’s website at www.lannen.fi/en/investor_information.

Publication of Annual Report and Annual General Meeting

Lännen Tehtaat’s 2011 Annual Report, containing the Board of Directors’ Report and Financial Statements for 2011 and a separate Lännen Tehtaat plc’s Corporate Governance Statement 2011, will be published on its website at www.lannen.fi/en/investor_information in the week beginning 5 March 2012. The printed version of the Annual Report will be published during the week beginning 12 March.

The Annual General Meeting is planned for 28 March 2012 and will be held at Säkylä.

The company will publish its Interim Report for Q1/2012, on Friday 4 May 2012 at 8.30 a.m.
 

Additional information from:

Matti Karppinen, CEO, tel. +358 (0)10 402 00

***************

Invitation to news briefing

CEO Matti Karppinen will present Lännen Tehtaat’s 2011 results to analysts and the media at a news briefing given in Finnish today, 16 February 2012, at 10.00 a.m. The news briefing will be held at the Scandic Simonkenttä hotel in Helsinki (address: Simonkatu 9).

The news briefing presentation material will be available on the company’s website at www.lannen.fi/en/investor_information after the news briefing.

COPIES TO:

NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd

Main media

www.lannen.fi.

Attachments:

Lännen Tehtaat plc Financial Statements Bulletin for 2011