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Fiberweb announces Annual Results

02 Mar '12

3 min read

Highlights

• A year of strategic transformation with the sale of the majority of the Group's hygiene nonwovens business to Petropar
• Significantly strengthened balance sheet with net cash of £22.0 million (before settlement of transaction costs and related restructuring estimated at £10 million) following disposal of the Hygiene business (2010: £151.2 million net debt)

Continuing Operations

• 3% increase in volumes in the continuing group, with Technical Fabrics up 1% and Geosynthetics up 15% reflecting the acquisitions of Tubex and Boddingtons in the year
• Revenues from continuing operations of £297.8 million up 11% (2010: £269.2 million); like-for-like up 3.4% after adjusting for the impact of acquisitions (£19.4 million)
• Underlying(1) operating profit of £10.8 million (2010: £20.9 million) after one-time £5.0 million impact of Pontypool and Berlin operational issues and £3.8 million net adverse raw material impact
• Underlying(1) operating margin of 3.6% (2010: 7.8%)
• Working capital as a percentage of annualised sales 15.4% (31 December 2010: 13.1%) with ROCE(5) reduced at 5.6% (2010: 13.7%)
• Adjusted(2) loss per share of 0.8p (2010: Earnings per share 4.5p)
• Final dividend of 2.0p (2010: 2.5p) making a total dividend of 3.0p for the year, in line with expectations at the time of the Rights Issue

Discontinued operations

• Underlying operating profit of £14.2 million (2010: £8.1 million)
• £1.5 million gain on disposal of the hygiene business

1) Underlying profit measures are before restructuring charges, amortisation of acquired intangibles and other non-recurring items, as set out in the Consolidated Income Statement
2) Adjusted to exclude restructuring charges, amortisation of acquired intangibles and other non-recurring items
3) All results are restated to show the continuing group following the disposal of the Hygiene business which is classified as a discontinued operation
4) No allocation of interest charges relating to the Group's Revolving Credit Facility has been made to discontinued operations on the basis that debt and related service costs are managed on a Group basis and cannot be meaningfully directly allocated
5) ROCE is defined as underlying operating profit from continuing operations /total fixed assets and working capital

Commenting on the results, Malcolm Coster, Chairman, said: “2011 was a watershed year for Fiberweb, with transformational change in our business portfolio and in the balance sheet. Operationally, while 2011 was a challenging year with a huge amount of corporate activity, we achieved several strategic objectives, and are now focused on the operational improvements necessary to deliver further value to shareholders. With a focused portfolio of attractive specialty industrial and construction materials businesses and a new, lean management structure, we have set new and attractive medium-term financial goals and expect to make significant progress in 2012.”

Fiberweb Plc