PFNonwovens as, a leading European producer of nonwovens textiles, has recorded consolidated revenues of CZK 2,984.2 million in the first half 2018, down by 0.3 per cent year-on-year, as per the unaudited results announced by the company. The appreciation of CZK had a negative impact on revenues as most of the company’s revenues are in euro.

In the first half of 2018, EBITDA amounted to CZK 662.1 million, up by 19.3 per cent y-o-y, primarily because of new production capacity being put into operation in the second quarter of 2017. Likewise, in the first half of this year, the polymer price pass-through mechanism had a positive impact as the price of polymers remained more or less stagnant compared with the growth in polymer prices registered in the first half of last year, the company said in a press release.

In the first half of 2018, profit from operations (EBIT) amounted to CZK 431.0 million, up by 29.5 per cent over the same period in 2017. Net profit reached CZK 279.9 million, up by 134.4 per cent y-o-y primarily due to improved operating results and lower reported unrealised foreign exchange changes in the compared periods.

Based on the achieved results in the first half, PFNonwovens has confirmed outlook for full year EBITDA in the range from CZK 1.22 to 1.38 billion.

“The company's financial results were in line with our expectations, nevertheless, probably the most important event to have occurred in the past few months was the acquisition of the nonwoven textile manufacturer First Quality Nonwovens (FQN), which was announced in May and subsequently completed in June by our majority shareholder, family office R2G. That created a new global nonwoven textile producer PFNonwovens with a total annual production exceeding 210,000 tonnes of nonwoven textiles, with production plants located on four continents: Europe, Africa, North America and Asia. The whole group now forms PFNonwovens holding (concern) which is subject to single management by PFNonwovens Holding sro,” said František Rezác, CEO and chairman of the Board of Directors of PFNonwovens.

“Apart from this very important event, we will certainly also remain focused on our other strategic projects. In South Africa the construction of the plant is under way and the building works are running according to plan. We expect to commence the installation of the line in November and to start the commercial deliveries at the end of the first half of next year,” Rezác added.

The next project of PFNonwovens, a new semi-commercial production line at the Znojmo production plant is, likewise, entering the building phase. Within the next few months, building modification works will be carried out in the production-warehousing hall in Znojmo-Prímetice and the installation of the production line will then follow in January next year. Commercial production on the line is expected to start during the third quarter of 2019. (RKS)