Interim report January-September 2015

(Tables included in attached PDF)

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Net sales for the quarter was SEK 5 478 million (5 191).
• Earnings per share for the quarter was SEK 3.49 (1.48).
• Operating profit was SEK 1 026 million (450) and adjusted for non-recurring items it was SEK 683 million (518).
• Non-recurring items in the quarter include capital gain from the divestiture of SIA Latgran, SEK 443 million, and a provision for closure of the Tervasaari site, SEK -100 million.
• Net sales Jan-Sep 2015 increased 6% and operating profit, adjusted for non-recurring items, increased 25% compared to the same period last year mainly due to currency.

Outlook

• Demand and orders situation for the fourth quarter is expected to be stable with normal seasonal variances for all business areas.
• Average prices in local currency in the fourth quarter are anticipated to be stable.
• No changes to wood prices are anticipated for the fourth quarter.
• There are planned maintenance shutdowns in Frövi, Skärblacka and Pietarsaari in the fourth quarter of 2015.

  
Comments by BillerudKorsnäs’ CEO Per Lindberg:

Strong performance and structural opportunities

“The third quarter performance and overall market situation strengthen our belief in our long-term strategic direction. The growth strategies per Business Area were confirmed, and our belief, that the contemplated investments in our own production structure will allow us to capture market opportunities, is strengthened.”
   

THE RESULT
I am pleased with the adjusted operating profit for the quarter of SEK 683 million. Of course the continued weak SEK continues to be a positive profit driver, but at the same time we see 5% year on year volume growth in Consumer Board in line with our targets, record margins in Containerboard, and a balanced development for Packaging Paper with some weaker and some stronger areas. Simultaneously, our ROCE is above target at 14% adjusted and our balance sheet strengthens further to a net debt/equity ratio of 0.46.

MARKET OUTLOOK
The overall market is stable, thus continuing sideways with only minor variations in segment demand and pricing. Looking ahead, we expect this pattern to continue with normal demand patterns and small variations in local pricing.

Within Packaging Paper the MG markets are continued strong, whereas MF and white sack paper markets are weaker but stable. Unfortunately, the market has not been strong enough to absorb the announced price increases for kraft and sack paper earlier in the year. Our production capacity in some segments has not been fully utilized due to increased competition, selective pressure on local prices, and in the non-integrated mills also due to unsatisfactory profitability. As a consequence, we have in October taken the decision to close our production in Tervasaari completely, after having run it underutilized during the year with insufficient profitability. This has been a tough decision to make. The local team in Tervasaari has made significant efforts to improve profitability and utilization, but the cost position of the machine in combination with an increasingly commoditized product portfolio proved too big of a burden to carry.

Consumer Board market continues to be strong and we are experiencing delivery pressures from our main markets. I am happy we have decided to invest in increased capacity in Consumer Board for continued volume growth.

Business area Containerboard noted an all-time high operating margin. Fluting demand continue to be strong. The new flute from the upgraded PM6 in Gruvön lives up to the high quality expectations and is a solid product for continued value growth. The liner segment shows a stable demand and attempts for price increases has been made on the market even with more capacity coming on line upstream.

STRATEGY
Growing demand driven by global megatrends favours our markets and to support the volume growth strategy within business area Consumer Board we have started a pre-project investigating the opportunity to invest in a new board machine to be placed in Gruvön. In addition to increased cost efficient capacity it would also include a streamlining of the production structure within business area Packaging Paper as the current production of kraft papers at the Gruvön production unit would be discontinued and replaced by production at other BillerudKorsnäs units. This supports business area Packaging paper’s selective growth strategy and in a second pre-project we focus our efforts on further structural changes to enable growth in the attractive growing kraft paper segments within medical papers, food packaging and release liners and the discontinuation in the less attractive commodity segments. The investigation explores the possibility of moving the paper machine in Tervasaari to Skärblacka and make it an integrated unit, as well as investment in further value adding surface treatment capacity at existing MG paper production in Skärblacka.

Should both pre-projects materialise it would imply an overall efficient production structure for the group, capacity increases in very attractive areas and improved margins due to better product mix including removal of any exposure to the pulp market.

BillerudKorsnäs’ President and CEO Per Lindberg and CFO Susanne Lithander will present the interim report at a press and analyst conference at 10.00 CET on Wednesday 21 October 2015.
Venue: Tändstickspalatset, Västra Trädgårdsgatan 15, Stockholm

For further information, please contact:
Per Lindberg, President and CEO +46 (0)8 553 335 00
Susanne Lithander, CFO, +46 (0)8 553 335 00

The information in this report is such that BillerudKorsnäs AB (publ) is obliged to disclose under the Swedish Securities Market Act and was submitted for publication at 07.00 CET on 21 October 2015. This report has been prepared in both a Swedish and an English version.

BillerudKorsnäs provides packaging materials and solutions that challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future. We are a world leading provider of primary fiber based packaging materials and have customers in over 100 countries. The company has 8 production sites in Sweden, Finland and the UK and about 4 300 employees in over 13 countries. BillerudKorsnäs has an annual turnover of about SEK 21 billion and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. www.billerudkorsnas.com

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