Oxea Reports 25% Earnings Increase Compared to Previous Quarter
LUXEMBOURG, May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
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Highlights Q1 2012:
* Net sales were EUR372 million versus EUR328 million in the previous quarter
* Adjusted EBITDA was EUR45 million versus EUR36 million in the previous quarter
* Operating Profit was EUR38 million versus EUR32 million in the previous quarter
* Net Income was EUR16 million versus EUR9 million in the previous quarter
Oxea, a leading global supplier of Oxo Intermediates and Oxo Derivatives, today announced a significant earnings increase for the first quarter of 2012 compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. Net sales of EUR372 million were up by 13% and Adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR45million reflecting an increase of 25% from the fourth quarter of 2011.
After a challenging fourth quarter of 2011 which was affected by the softening of the world economy and destocking activities along the value chain in the entire industry, Oxea was able to significantly increase revenues and EBITDA during the first quarter of 2012. This positive trend was recognized across the entire product portfolio. Despite the difficult macroeconomic environment still affected by the financial turbulence stemming from the European debt crisis, Oxea's Adjusted EBITDA of EUR45 million clearly outperformed the expectations for the first quarter of 2012.
Compared to the very strong first quarter of 2011 revenues stayed broadly flat but margins could not reach the previous level such that gross profit was EUR 47 million after EUR 68 million in the first quarter of 2011. The first quarter of 2011 was positively affected by high export margins and one-off gains from steep raw material price increases over the average cost value carried in inventories.
Oxea generated strong cash flows mainly due to a significant improvement of Trade Working Capital. Cash provided by operating activities was EUR42 million compared to EUR 20 million in the corresponding period of the prior year. The strong cash generation further improved Oxea's financial profile and further reduced net debt to 1.8x Adjusted EBITDA.
In EUR million
Q1 Q4 Q1 Q1
Unaudited 2012 2011 2012 2011
Net Sales 371.5 328.4 371.5 377.0
Gross Profit 47.2 33.8 47.2 68.1
SG&A (9.5) (10.0) (9.5) (10.3)
R&D (1.7) (1.8) (1.7) (1.5)
Other operating 1.9 9.7 1.9 1.0
income/expense
Operating Profit 37.9 31.7 37.9 57.3
Net Income 16.1 8.7 16.1 30.0
Adjusted EBITDA 44.5 35.5 44.5 65.8
Sales
Sales for the three months ended March 31, 2012 were EUR371.5 million, a slight decrease of 1.5% compared with the corresponding period of the prior year. Overall, volumes were 2.7% higher mainly driven by production outages in the corresponding period of the prior year. Oxo Intermediates volumes and Oxo Derivatives were 2.8% and 3.5% higher respectively than in the corresponding period of the prior year. Of our revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2012, EUR188 million resulted from sales in Europe, EUR120 million in North America and EUR63 million in the rest of the world compared to EUR200 million, EUR107 million and EUR70 million respectively in the prior year period.
Gross profit
Gross profit for the three months ended March 31, 2012 amounted to EUR47.2 million compared with EUR68.1 million in the corresponding period of the prior year. This development is mainly due to high export margins and one-off gains in the corresponding period of the prior year as mentioned above such that gross profit amounted to 10.2% of sales compared with 18.2% in the first quarter of 2011.
Selling, general & administration expense (SG&A)
SG&A expense for the three months ended March 31, 2012 decreased to EUR9.5 million compared to EUR10.3 million in the corresponding period of the prior year. The decrease is primarily attributable to lower consulting fees and lower personnel costs including accruals for employee bonuses.
Other operating income/(expense)
Net other operating income for the three months ended March 31, 2012 amounted to EUR1.9 million compared with a net other operating income of EUR1.0 million in the corresponding period of the prior year. The increase is primarily attributable to higher revenues from site services.
Operating result
Operating result for the three months ended March 31, 2012 was EUR37.9 million compared with EUR57.3 million in the corresponding prior year period primarily as a result of lower gross profit as explained above partly offset by lower SG&A expense and higher net other operating income.
Financial result
Net financial expense of EUR13.0 million was in line with the corresponding period of the prior year.
Net income
Net income was EUR16.1 million compared with EUR30.0 million in the corresponding period of the prior year primarily attributable to a lower operating result as mentioned above partly compensated by lower income taxes.
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA at EUR44.5 million compared with EUR65.8 million in the corresponding period of the prior year was driven by lower gross profit partly offset by lower operating expenses and higher net other operating income.
Cash Flow
The company continued to generate positive free cash flow and during the first quarter of 2012 Oxea generated EUR42.3 million in cash from operating activities compared with EUR20.0 million in the corresponding period of the prior year. Higher inflows from working capital were partly offset by lower earnings from operating activities and higher income tax payments.
Cash used in investing activities was EUR14.0 million compared with EUR 5.6 million in the corresponding period of the prior year due to higher spending for growth projects.
Cash used in financing activities was EUR23.1 million compared to EUR 23.9 million in the corresponding period of the prior year.
Oxea is a global manufacturer of Oxo Intermediates and Derivatives such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters and amines. These products are sold in the merchant market (where sales are to third party customers) and used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, flavourings and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. In 2011, Oxea generated revenue of about EUR1.5 billion with its 1,365 employees in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Please note:
This press release contains financial information regarding the businesses and assets of OXEA S.à r.l. (the "Company") and its consolidated subsidiaries (the "Group"). Such financial information has not been audited, reviewed or verified by any independent accounting firm. The inclusion of such financial information in this press release or any related presentation should not be regarded as a representation or warranty by the Company, any of its respective affiliates, advisors or representatives or any other person as to the accuracy or completeness of such information's portrayal of the financial condition or results of operations by the Group.
This press release and related presentations (including on our website) may contain information, data and predictions about our markets and our competitive position. While we believe this data to be reliable, it has not been independently verified, and we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of such information set forth in this document.
Additionally, industry publications and reports from which such information, data or predictions may be obtained generally state that the information contained therein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but that the accuracy and completeness of such information is not guaranteed and in some instances state that they do not assume liability for such information. We cannot therefore assure you of the accuracy and completeness of such information and we have not independently verified such information. In addition, we have made statements in this document regarding our industry and position in the industry based on our experience and our own investigation of market conditions. We cannot assure you that the assumptions underlying these statements are accurate or correctly reflect the state and development of, or our position in, the industry, and none of our internal surveys or information has been verified by any independent sources.
Certain statements in this document are forward-looking. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These factors include, among others: the cyclical and highly variable nature of our business and its sensitivity to changes in supply and demand; adverse and uncertain global economic conditions; the highly variable nature of raw materials costs and any loss of key suppliers or supply shortages or disruptions; the competitive nature of our industry; the ability to comply with current or future laws and regulations relating to environmental, health and safety matters as well as the safety of our products, related costs of maintaining compliance and addressing liabilities as well as risks relating to compliance with antitrust and tax laws; our reliance on a limited number of suppliers for certain of our key raw materials; operational risks, including the risk of environmental contamination and potential product liability claims; operational interruptions at our facilities due to events that are outside of our control such as severe weather conditions, unscheduled downtimes, terrorist attacks, natural disasters or other events that may interrupt or damage our operations or the impact of scheduled outages on our results of operations; the risk that our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover all risks; risks relating to the global nature of our operations, including, among others, fluctuations in exchange rates; the loss of major customers or key customers for certain of our products; the loss of key personnel; risks relating to acquisitions and dispositions, including any impairment risks with respect to historical acquisitions, our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, and unexpected liabilities relating to such acquisitions or contingent liabilities in connection with such dispositions; the requirement to make further contributions to our pension schemes; the failure to protect our intellectual property rights; limitations on our ability to adjust the quality of certain products that we manufacture; and potential conflicts of interests with our principal shareholder.
These and other factors could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Forward-looking statements contained in this document regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. New risks can emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such risks, nor can we assess the impact of all such risks on our business or the extent to which any risks, or combination of risks and other factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Neither the Company nor the Group undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document.
EBITDA is defined as net income for the year before financial result, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA adjusted to remove the effects of certain non-cash and non-recurring expenses and charges. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are supplemental measures of our performance and liquidity that are not required by or presented in accordance with IFRS. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of our financial performance or liquidity under IFRS and should not be considered as an alternative to profit for the period presented, results from operating activities or any other performance measures derived in accordance with IFRS or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. We believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period and company to company by eliminating potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense), tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of change in effective tax rates or net operating losses) and the age and book value and amortization of tangible and intangible assets (which have an effect on related depreciation expense). We also present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe it these are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of similar issuers, the majority of which present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA when reporting their results. Finally, we present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as measures of our ability to service our debt.
For further information:
Bernhard Spetsmann
Managing Director (Finance, IT)
bernhard.spetsmann@oxea-chemicals.com
Birgit Reichel
Communications/PR
birgit.reichel@oxea-chemicals.com
Oxea GmbH
Otto-Roelen-Straße 3
D-46147 Oberhausen
Phone: +49(0)208-693-3112
Fax: +49(0)208-693-3101
birgit.reichel@oxea-chemicals.com
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