Metsä Board Corporation’s operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 180 million in 2015
Metsä Board Corporation Financial Statements 1 January–31 December 2015, 3 February 2016 at noon EET
January–December 2015 (1–12/2014)
• Sales amounted to EUR 2,007.5 million (2,008.4).
• Operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 179.9 million (136.5), or 9.0 per cent of sales. Operating result including non-recurring items was EUR 199.0 million (116.5).
• Result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR 150.2 million (99.7). Result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR 167.1 million (77.6).
• Earnings per share excluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.34 (0.26), and earnings per share including non-recurring items were EUR 0.39 (0.20).
• The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting to be held on 23 March 2016 that a dividend of EUR 0.17 per share be paid for the 2015 financial period. The proposed dividend equals 44 per cent of the earnings per share of 2015.
October–December 2015 (Q3/2015)
• Sales amounted to EUR 462.2 million (497.6).
• Operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 35.1 million (54.6), or 7.6 per cent (11.0) of sales. Operating result including non-recurring items was EUR 34.1 million (54.6).
• The result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR 30.4 million (47.5). Result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR 29.4 million (47.5).
• Earnings per share excluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.07 (0.08), and earnings per share including non-recurring items were EUR 0.07 (0.08).
Events in October–December 2015
• Paperboard deliveries declined slightly due to the seasonality, and the price levels were stable.
• Metsä Board announced it would increase the price of folding boxboard in Europe starting from 1 December 2015.
• The manufacture of uncoated fine paper sheets at Husum ended.
• The integrated mill shutdown related to the investment programme in Husum had negative impact on the operating profit for the review period of approximately EUR 20 million.
• Metsä Board decided to expand its paperboard offering for food service packaging by investing EUR 38 million in extrusion coating.
Events after the review period
• Husum's new folding boxboard production line is in the start-up phase, slightly behind the original schedule. The delay will have a slight negative impact on the operating result for the first quarter of 2016.
• Metsä Board's market cap segment changed in Nasdaq's Nordics listing. As of the beginning of 2016, Metsä Board's segment is Large Cap.
Mika Joukio, CEO:
“Overall, 2015 was a record year for us. Our operating result excluding non-recurring items improved by nearly a third from the previous year. Our paperboard deliveries grew by 12 per cent, and average prices remained stable. In addition, our profitability was supported by favourable exchange rates and our exit from the loss-making paper business. We also received significant recognitions for the quality of our products and sustainability.
The integrated mill shutdown related to the investment programme at Husum had a negative impact of approximately EUR 20 million on the last quarter’s result. This was more than we had estimated in November. The start-up phase of the new folding boxboard production line was delayed slightly, which will naturally have some impact on our result in the first quarter of 2016. Our target is to sell 200,000 tonnes of Husum's new folding boxboard in 2016. Husum's folding boxboard deliveries will mainly target the Americas and the food service packaging segment globally.
In 2015, we invested in product development in order to continue to offer our customers the most lightweight and high-quality paperboard on the market. Among other things, we began testing foam forming at an industrial scale and made a decision to invest in an extrusion coating line at Husum. We will also continue to develop other barrier solutions.
Our transformation from a paper company into a paperboard company is practically complete. After the investment programme at Husum, our paperboard capacity is more than 2 million tonnes per year. The remaining annual production of uncoated fine paper reels, approximately 100,000 tonnes, will end completely in 2017.
Our main goal continues to be to grow our paperboard business operations profitably together with our customers. With the new capacity and increasingly improved products, we will be able to serve our customers even better globally.”
Key figures
| 2015 | 2015 | 2015 | 2015 | 2014 | 2015 | 2014 | |
| Q4 | Q3 | Q2 | Q1 | Q4 | Q1–Q4 | Q1–Q4 | |
| Sales, EUR million | 462.2 | 497.6 | 522.0 | 525.7 | 499.4 | 2 007.5 | 2 008.4 |
| EBITDA, EUR million | 59.1 | 80.8 | 93.3 | 69.3 | 56.4 | 302.5 | 242.2 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 59.7 | 80.8 | 73.1 | 69.7 | 60.6 | 283.3 | 236.2 |
| EBITDA, % | 12.8 | 16.2 | 17.9 | 13.2 | 11.3 | 15.1 | 12.1 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 12.9 | 16.2 | 14.0 | 13.3 | 12.1 | 14.1 | 11.8 |
| Operating result, EUR million | 34.1 | 54.6 | 67.2 | 43.1 | 6.7 | 199.0 | 116.5 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 35.1 | 54.6 | 47.0 | 43.2 | 36.9 | 179.9 | 136.5 |
| EBIT, % | 7.4 | 11.0 | 12.9 | 8.2 | 1.3 | 9.9 | 5.8 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 7.6 | 11.0 | 9.0 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 9.0 | 6.8 |
| Result before taxes, EUR million | 29.4 | 47.5 | 58.0 | 32.2 | 1.6 | 167.1 | 77.6 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 30.4 | 47.5 | 40.0 | 32.3 | 31.6 | 150.2 | 99.7 |
| Result for the period, EUR million | 26.5 | 26.8 | 54.7 | 29.3 | 6.1 | 137.3 | 68.5 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR million | 27.5 | 26.4 | 36.9 | 29.4 | 32.7 | 120.2 | 88.1 |
| Result per share | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.15 | 0.09 | 0.02 | 0.39 | 0.20 |
| excl. non-recurring items, EUR | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.34 | 0.26 |
| Return on equity, % | 10.4 | 10.6 | 22.5 | 13.2 | 2.9 | 14.7 | 8.1 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 10.8 | 10.4 | 15.2 | 13.2 | 15.4 | 12.9 | 10.4 |
| Return on capital employed, % | 8.1 | 13.0 | 16.5 | 11.0 | 1.8 | 12.5 | 7.7 |
| excl. non-recurring items, % | 8.3 | 13.0 | 11.6 | 11.0 | 9.6 | 11.3 | 9.1 |
| Equity ratio at the end of the period, % | 46.5 | 45.6 | 45.9 | 40.8 | 39.2 | 46.5 | 39.2 |
| Gearing ratio at the end of the period, % | 64 | 66 | 67 | 73 | 81 | 64 | 81 |
| Net gearing ratio at the end of the period, % | 32 | 34 | 39 | 34 | 51 | 32 | 51 |
| Shareholders’ equity per share at the end of the period, EUR | 2.89 | 2.86 | 2.83 | 2.63 | 2.49 | 2.89 | 2.49 |
| Interest-bearing net liabilities at the end of the period, EUR million | 333.4 | 344.2 | 389.0 | 318.9 | 426.7 | 333.4 | 426.7 |
| Gross investments, EUR million | 60.8 | 44.8 | 48.3 | 23.9 | 18.2 | 177.8 | 44.2 |
| Net cash flow from operations, EUR million | 65.9 | 92.5 | 55.8 | 32.5 | 74.3 | 246.7 | 198.2 |
| Deliveries, 1,000 tonnes | |||||||
| Paperboard | 365 | 373 | 366 | 345 | 326 | 1,449 | 1,310 |
| Non-core operations | 65 | 118 | 138 | 156 | 158 | 478 | 636 |
| Personnel at the end of the period | 2,601 | 2,642 | 2,850 | 3,158 | 3,111 | 2,601 | 3,111 |
The 2014 earnings per share and shareholders’ equity per share have been issue-adjusted. The rights issue factor was 1.030627.
EBITDA = Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation
Business environment and near-term outlook
Metsä Board's paperboard deliveries are expected to grow in January–March from the last quarter of 2015. Demand for paperboard is expected to remain good in Americas and the market situation to remain stable in Europe.
The average price of Metsä Board's folding boxboard will be reduced by the start-up volumes from the new FBB machine at Husum. The company estimates that the required quality objectives will be reached by the third quarter of 2016, according to the original plan. The delayed start-up phase of the new production line will have a negative impact on the production volumes of pulp and paperboard in the first quarter. According to the original plan, Metsä Board's target is to sell 200,000 tonnes of the new folding boxboard from Husum to the Americas and for food service packaging globally in 2016.
The global demand for and supply of long-fibred pulp is expected to remain fairly stable. Metsä Board's market pulp deliveries are expected to grow from the last quarter of 2015. Paper deliveries will decrease as planned, and the prices are expected to remain stable.
Production costs in January–March are expected to remain at approximately the level of the last quarter of 2015.
It is estimated that the investment programme at Husum will have a positive effect of approximately EUR 50 million on Metsä Board’s annual operating result. The company estimates that approximately a third of this result improvement will be realised in 2016. Correspondingly, the positive impact of the EUR 20 million divestment of the Gohrsmühle mill will show in the 2016 operating result in full. Of this, somewhat over a half was realised in the 2015 result.
Metsä Board’s operating result excluding non-recurring items in the first quarter of 2016 is expected to remain roughly at the same level as in the last quarter of 2015.
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 2015 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
Katri Sundström, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +358 (0)400 976 333
More information will be available from 1 p.m. on 3 February 2016. A conference call for investors and analysts will be held in English and begin 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 3427 1913
US: +1 646 254 3362
Conference ID: 3693549
www.metsaboard.com
Metsä Board is a leading European producer of folding boxboards and white linerboards made from fresh forest fibres. Its lightweight paperboards are developed as the perfect fit for consumer goods, retail-ready and food service packaging. The pure fresh forest fibres Metsä Board uses are a renewable resource, traceable to origin in northern forests. The global sales network of Metsä Board supports customers worldwide, including brand owners, converters and merchants. In 2015, the company’s sales totalled EUR 2.0 billion, and it has approximately 2,600 employees. Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.