Metsä Board Corporation’s operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 136.5 million in 2014
Metsä Board Corporation Financial Statements 1 January - 31 December 2014, 5 February 2015 at 12:00 noon
Full year result for 2014
• Sales were EUR 2,008.4 million (Q1-Q4/2013: 2,019.3).
• The operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 136.5 million (104.4). The operating result including non-recurring items was EUR 116.5 million (113.6).
• The result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR 99.7 million (48.6). The result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR 77.6 million (57.8).
• Earnings per share excluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.27 (0.17), and earnings per share in-cluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.21 (0.19).
• The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting to be held on 25 March 2015 that a dividend of EUR 0.12 per share will be paid for the 2014 financial year.
Result for the last quarter of 2014
• Sales were EUR 499.4 million (Q3/2014: 513.8).
• The operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 36.9 million (35.2). The operating result including non-recurring items was EUR 6.7 million (34.1).
• The result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR 31.6 million (27.3). The result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR 1.6 million (26.1).
• Earnings per share excluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.10 (0.07), and earnings per share in-cluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.02 (0.06).
Events during the last quarter of 2014
• The demand for paperboard continued to be strong, and prices were stable.
• Metsä Board launched the final steps of transformation and announced that it would grow its paperboard business significantly and is planning to discontinue paper production completely.
• Metsä Board began the process to divest its loss-making Gohrsmühle mill in Germany.
• Metsä Board announced that it would renew its management and reporting structure as of the first quarter of 2015.
• Moody's Investors Service upgraded Metsä Board’s credit rating from B2 to B1. The outlook of the rating is positive.
• Net debt decreased significantly and was EUR 427 million as a result of strong cash flow.
Events after the reporting period
• Metsä Board updated its long-term financial targets in February 2015. The updated targets are return on capital employed (ROCE) minimum 12 per cent from 2017 onwards and net gearing maximum 70 per cent.
“The market situation for our main products continued to be strong in the last quarter of 2014. Although December is a seasonally weaker month, our operating result was approximately at the same level as in the previous quarter.
The general economy continued to be weak in Europe, our domestic market, in 2014. Even so, our global paperboard deliveries increased by a total of 10 per cent, and price levels remained unchanged. Delivery volumes increased in line with our strategy, particularly in North America, where linerboard sales are growing steadily, and the launch of our ecological folding box-board has progressed extremely well.
In December 2014, we announced new measures to complete our transformation into a leading paperboard company. We are planning to discontinue paper production completely at Husum and convert the integrated mill into one of the largest fresh forest fibre paperboard units in Europe. In addition, we launched measures to eliminate the losses of the Gohrsmühle mill.
Our main goal continues to be the profitable growth of our paperboard business. With the new capacity, we are able to serve our customers even better globally. We will also continue to develop new, even better products in cooperation with our customers and partners.
In the coming years, we will raise our profitability to a new level while maintaining a strong balance structure.”
Mika Joukio, CEO
Key figures
| 2014 | 2014 | 2014 | 2014 | 2013 | 2014 | 2013 | |
| Q4 | Q3 | Q2 | Q1 | Q4 | Q1–Q4 | Q1–Q4 | |
| Sales, EUR million | 499.4 | 513.8 | 494.0 | 501.2 | 479.2 | 2,008.4 | 2,019.3 |
| EBITDA, EUR million | 56.4 | 60.7 | 55.9 | 69.2 | 56.7 | 242.2 | 214.8 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 60.6 | 61.8 | 52.0 | 61.8 | 55.5 | 236.2 | 208.0 |
| EBITDA, % | 11.3 | 11.8 | 11.3 | 13.8 | 11.8 | 12.1 | 10.6 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 12.1 | 12.0 | 10.5 | 12.3 | 11.6 | 11.8 | 10.3 |
| Operating result, EUR million | 6.7 | 34.1 | 32.2 | 43.5 | 30.6 | 116.5 | 113.6 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 36.9 | 35.2 | 28.3 | 36.1 | 29.3 | 136.5 | 104.4 |
| EBIT, % | 1.3 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 8.7 | 6.4 | 5.8 | 5.6 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 7.4 | 6.9 | 5.7 | 7.2 | 6.1 | 6.8 | 5.2 |
| Result before taxes, EUR million | 1.6 | 26.1 | 23.9 | 26.0 | 19.0 | 77.6 | 57.8 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 31.6 | 27.3 | 20.0 | 20.8 | 17.8 | 99.7 | 48.6 |
| Result for the period, EUR million | 6.1 | 20.8 | 16.8 | 24.8 | 31.2 | 68.5 | 64.1 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 32.7 | 21.9 | 12.9 | 20.6 | 29.9 | 88.1 | 55.4 |
| Result per share | 0.02 | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.08 | 0.09 | 0.21 | 0.19 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR | 0.10 | 0.07 | 0.04 | 0.06 | 0.09 | 0.27 | 0.17 |
| Return on equity, % | 2.9 | 9.8 | 8.0 | 11.6 | 14.9 | 8.1 | 7.5 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 15.4 | 10.4 | 6.1 | 9.6 | 14.3 | 10.4 | 6.5 |
| Return on capital employed, % | 1.8 | 9.0 | 8.5 | 11.2 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 7.0 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 9.6 | 9.2 | 7.5 | 9.9 | 7.9 | 9.1 | 6.4 |
| Equity ratio at the end of the period, % | 39.2 | 39.8 | 39.8 | 41.0 | 40.7 | 39.2 | 40.7 |
| Gearing ratio at the end of the period, % | 81 | 82 | 84 | 84 | 83 | 81 | 83 |
| Net gearing ratio at the end of the period, % | 51 | 57 | 65 | 69 | 70 | 51 | 70 |
| Shareholders’ equity per share at the end of the period, EUR | 2.56 | 2.60 | 2.54 | 2.62 | 2.59 | 2.56 | 2.59 |
| Interest-bearing net liabilities at the end of the period, EUR million | 426.7 | 491.1 | 540.1 | 592.6 | 597.2 | 426.7 | 597.2 |
| Gross investments, EUR million | 18.2 | 7.3 | 14.0 | 4.7 | 20.2 | 44.2 | 66.9 |
| Deliveries, 1,000 tonnes | |||||||
| Cartonboard | 229 | 237 | 226 | 219 | 210 | 911 | 872 |
| Linerboard and Paper | 255 | 265 | 250 | 265 | 251 | 1,035 | 1,027 |
| Personnel at the end of the period | 3,111 | 3,164 | 3,370 | 3,145 | 3,116 | 3,111 | 3,116 |
EBITDA = Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation
Metsä Board sold its holding in Metsä Group Treasury Oy in September 2013. Compared to the actual figures for the second quarter of 2013, this improved Metsä Board’s equity ratio by approximately 5 percentage points and its return on capital employed by nearly 1 percentage point and reduced its gross debt by more than EUR 300 million.
Operating environment and near-term outlook
The delivery volumes of paperboards are estimated to increase slightly in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the previous quarter. No material changes in the prices of paperboard are foreseen at the moment.
In market pulp business there are no material market related changes in sight in the first quarter of 2015.Metsä Board’s paper deliveries are estimated to increase slightly in the first quarter of 2015, while the average price of paper is estimated to decrease.
No material changes in production costs are expected in the first quarter of 2015.
Foreign exchange rates developed favourably for Metsä Board in the second half of 2014 and at the beginning of 2015. The duration of the company’s net foreign exchange hedges is approximately six months. For this reason, the positive effect of foreign exchange rates on the result is expected to be more clearly visible as of the first half of 2015.
Metsä Board’s operating result excluding non-recurring items is in the first quarter of 2015 expected to improve slightly compared to the last quarter of 2014.
Disclosure procedure
Metsä Board Corporation follows the disclosure procedure enabled by Standard 5.2b published by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority and hereby publishes its Financial Statements 2014 enclosed to this stock exchange release. Metsä Board's complete Financial Statements is attached to this release in pdf-format and is also available on the company's web site at www.metsaboard.com.
METSÄ BOARD CORPORATION
More information:
Markus Holm, CFO, tel. +358 (0)10 465 4913
Juha Laine, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, tel. +358 (0)10 465 4335
More information will be available from 1 p.m. on 5 February 2015. A conference call for investors and analysts will be held in English at 3 p.m. (EET). Conference call participants are requested to dial in and register a few minutes earlier on the following numbers:
Europe: +44 (0)20 7162 0025
USA: +1 334 323 6201
The conference ID is 950756.
Metsä Board is Europe’s leading producer of folding boxboard and white fresh forest fibre linerboard and a market pulp supplier. It offers premium solutions for consumer and retail packaging and graphics. The company’s sales network serves brand owners, carton printers, corrugated packaging manufacturers and merchants. Metsä Board is part of Metsä Group, and its shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. In 2014, the company’s sales totalled approximately EUR 2.0 billion. The company has approximately 3,100 employees.