Frigoglass Reports Strong First Half 2007 Results
Frigoglass, world's leading manufacturer and solutions provider of Ice-Cold Merchandisers (ICMs), with operations in 17 countries across four continents, announces today First Half 2007 results:
Half Year 2007 Highlights
- Sales of euro 290.6 million, 12.3% above last year
- EBITDA up 13.1% to euro 71.3 million
- EBIT up 15.2% to euro 61.2 million
- EBT rose by 17.9% to euro 58.3 million
- EPS of euro 1.02 versus euro 0.84 up 20.7%
- NTS/NWC ratio increased by 6.3% versus H1 2006
Mr Petros Diamantides, Managing Director, Frigoglass, commented:
"Given the challenging comparable period, we are delighted that we have been able to maintain momentum, with a 20.7% increase in Net Profit during the first six months of this year. This strong performance is driven by top-line growth as we continue to diversify our customer base, not only into Coca-Cola bottlers other than Coca-Cola HBC and breweries but also into new segments such as juices and water, whilst also maintaining our focus on offsetting the ongoing challenging raw material cost environment through internal efficiency gains and on further optimising our cost structure.
In addition, we continue to succeed in further penetrating high-potential geographies such as India and at the same time in sustaining strong growth in existing geographies such as Russia, Norway, UK and France through our leadership in offering highly innovative Ice-Cold Merchandising solutions. Furthermore, our Greenfield development in China is progressing well.
Following these strong results, we are confident that we will achieve the upper end of our full year guidance."
Lillian Phillips
Investor Relations
Tel: +30 210 6165757
E-mail: lphillips@frigoglass.com
Greg Quine
Financial Dynamics London
Tell: +44 207 269 7206
E-mail: greg.quine@fd.com
The Financial Statements for the period 1/1-30/6 2007, will be published on Monday 6th August 2007 at the newspapers NAFTEMPORIKI & ETHNOS.
Review
Consolidated Sales in the first half of 2007 increased 12.3%, to euro 290.6 million, which compares favourably given the high base of 40.3% growth in the same period last year. Sales growth was driven by strong momentum in Cool Operations, which now represents 87.5% of Consolidated Sales, versus 86.8% in the comparable period last year.
Cool Operations Sales increased 13.2%, to euro 255.4 million in the first half, driven by both volume growth and favourable product mix. Net Profit for this segment increased 22.3%, to euro 38.6 million. In terms of the geographic performance for Cool Operations, the highest incremental contribution to sales came from Russia, India and France, with notable growth also in Norway, the UK, Sweden, Poland and Bulgaria. Both Germany and Italy experienced declines owing to the exceptionally high placements made last year in those markets.
Frigoglass has maintained its momentum in diversifying its client base, as breweries now represent 29.7% of Cool Operations Sales, compared to 26.9% in the first half last year. Coca-Cola bottlers other than Coca-Cola HBC now represent 25.2% of Cool Operations Sales. Sales growth was strongest from breweries and from Coca-Cola bottlers other than Coca-Cola HBC (25% and 9.7% respectively). Sales to Coca-Cola HBC increased 3.1% yoy, which now represents 35.4% of Cool Operations Sales.
New products accounted for 22.4% of Cool Operations Sales (ICM only) in the first half of the year, compared to 28.2% in the same period last year; this is in line with Frigoglass' long-term targets.
Nigeria Operations saw Sales increase 5.7% in Euro terms to euro 33.5 million (14.3% in local currency terms), owing to the continued strong growth in Glass, where Sales increased 24.9% in Euro terms to euro 18.1 million (35.1% in local currency terms). This segment now represents 54.2% of Nigeria Sales. Net Profit increased by 2.5% in Euro terms to euro 1.8 million.
At a Consolidated level, Gross Profit increased 12.7%, to euro 87.5 million in the first half of the year. The Gross Profit margin increased 10 bps, to 30.1%, despite the 50 bps rise in the Direct Material Cost margin. This was a result of Cool Operations product mix and continued effective cost management. Operating Profit increased 15.2%, to euro 61.2 million, despite an increase of 11.5% in Total Operating Expenses as Research & Development and Selling & Distribution expenses rose. Net Profit increased 20.7%, to euro 40.7 million in the period, aided by lower financing costs and a reduction in the effective tax rate.
Cash generated from operations was impacted by outflows relating to trade debtors owing to strong sales in the first half of the year; a position which we expect to normalise during the course of the second half. Despite this, and a higher capital expenditure than in the same period last year, net cashflow after investing activities improved from an outflow of euro 13.8 million (excluding VPI proceeds) to an outflow of euro 6.8 million.