Results for the Full Year ended 31 December 2012

Athens, Greece, 12 March 2013 – Frigoglass SAIC (“Frigoglass” or “we” or the “Group”) today announces its fourth quarter and full year audited results ended 31 December 2012.

Fourth Quarter 2012 Highlights

• Double digit sales growth despite sustained weakness in Western Europe

• Strong free cash flow led to significant reduction in net debt

• Strategic priority projects launched to strengthen robustness of business model and enhance profitability

• Significant cash flow improvement targeted by 2014

Torsten Tuerling, Chief Executive Officer of Frigoglass, commented:
"We are pleased to have delivered double digit sales growth and strong cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2012. Against a backdrop of challenging conditions in Western Europe, we continue to achieve strong growth in all of our other markets and achieved our strongest ever fourth quarter sales performance. Our broad geographic reach and our progress in building strong market positions in high growth markets is allowing us to become less dependent on economic conditions in Western Europe; and, it underpins the attractive growth prospects of our business.
Our focus on effective working capital management has started to deliver results. Our actions to significantly reduce inventory levels have been a major contributor to strong cash flow generation in the quarter. However, at the same time, the discounted sale of inventory did have a negative impact on our margins in the quarter. In addition to the negative results of our operations in China, the US and the Jebel Ali glass business, our fourth-quarter earnings were burdened by provisions for warranty related costs and higher net finance charges. We have also built provisions for restructuring programmes to ensure our long-term competitiveness.
To bring a step change in our organisation and performance, we have launched several strategic priority projects in the fourth quarter. These projects will further strengthen our position as a Strategic Partner of global beverage brands, improve the robustness of our business model, restore profit margins and significantly enhance cash flow generation. For 2013, we expect market conditions to stay very challenging in Europe, whereas growth dynamics in the other regions and the impact of our performance improvement programmes will accelerate in the second half of the year."