Metsä Board Corporation Interim Report 1 January-31 March 2012, 3 May 2012 at
12 noon
Result for January-March
-- Sales were EUR 545 million (Q4/2011:
524).
-- The operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 5 million (-22).
The operating result including non-recurring items was EUR -4 million
(-215).
-- The result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR -9 million
(-33).
The result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR -18 million
(-230).
-- Earnings per share from continuing operations excluding non-recurring items
were EUR -0.02 (-0.04) and including non-recurring items EUR -0.05 (-0.63).
Events in the first quarter of 2012
-- The Premium Paper operations of the Reflex mill were sold to Hahnemühle
FineArt GmbH and Hahnemühle's private shareholders.
After the closing of the transaction, Metsä Board no longer has operations
in Reflex.
-- The company's management and reporting structure was renewed.
As of the first quarter of 2012, the reporting segments are Paperboard, and
Paper and Pulp.
Pasi Piiparinen started as the head of Paperboard business area on 20 March
2012.
-- The unprofitable operations of the Gohrsmühle mill in Germany were
discontinued and the Alizay mill in France was shut down.
-- The Annual General Meeting that convened on 28 March 2012 resolved to
change the company's business name from M-real Corporation to Metsä Board
Corporation.
Events after the period
-- Metsä Board agreed to sell approximately 7.3 percentage points of its
holding in Metsä Fibre to Japanese Itochu Corporation for EUR 138 million.
-- Metsä Board sold approximately 0.5 percentage points of its holding in
Pohjolan Voima Oy to Metsä Fibre for EUR 64 million.
-- Metsä Board signed an agreement on the refinancing of its EUR 500 million
bond maturing on 1 April 2013.
“Our profitability improved as expected in the first quarter of 2012. The
result was, however, still on an unsatisfactory level. Cartonboard order books
have normalised and utilisation rates have clearly improved from the turn of
the year level.
Our restructuring process from a paper company to a leading cartonboard company
has been completed. Our strong cartonboard business together with the paper and
pulp integrate in Husum provides a good foundation for further profitability
improvement.
A programme to increase our annual folding boxboard capacity by 150,000 tonnes
was completed as planned with the completion of the investment to increase the
capacity of the folding boxboard machine in Äänekoski in early May.
Our measures to eliminate the unprofitable paper businesses are almost
complete, and the losses of our paper business are in the second quarter
clearly smaller than in the first quarter.”
Mikko Helander, CEO
KEY FIGURES 2012 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011
Q1 Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q1-Q4
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Sales, EUR million 545 524 616 660 685 2,485
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EBITDA, EUR million 25 -172 24 48 77 -23
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 34 8 36 62 74 180
million
EBITDA, % 4.6 -32.8 3.9 7.3 11.2 -0.9
excl. non-recurring items, % 6.2 1.5 5.8 9.4 10.8 7.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating result, EUR million -4 -215 -13 -32 46 -214
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 5 -22 6 32 43 59
million
EBIT, % -0.7 -41.0 -2.1 -4.8 6.7 -8.6
excl. non-recurring items, % 0.9 -4.2 1.0 4.8 6.3 2.4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Result before taxes, EUR million -18 -230 -29 -53 31 -281
excl. non-recurring items, EUR -9 -33 -11 16 28 0
million
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Result for the period, EUR million -15 -209 -33 -59 28 -273
excl. non-recurring items, EUR -6 -12 -15 10 25 8
million
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Result per share, EUR -0.05 -0.63 -0.11 -0.17 0.08 -0.83
excl. non-recurring items, EUR -0.02 -0.04 -0.05 0.04 0.07 0.02
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return on equity, % -8.4 -100.4 -14.1 -23.5 10.8 -31.5
excl. non-recurring items, % -3.1 -5.4 -6.3 4.2 9.5 0.9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return on capital employed, % -0.4 -43.3 -1.5 -6.1 8.4 -9.9
excl. non-recurring items, % 1.7 -3.7 2.0 6.4 7.8 3.4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equity ratio at end of period, % 27.8 27.4 32.7 33.9 33.6 27.4
Gearing ratio at end of period, % 154 154 128 120 125 154
Net gearing ratio at end of period, % 104 106 83 84 78 106
Shareholders' equity per share at end 2.21 2.23 2.81 2.92 3.11 2.23
of period, EUR
Interest-bearing net liabilities, EUR 758 783 772 809 799 783
million
Gross investments, EUR million 10 35 17 31 12 95
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deliveries, 1 000 tonnes
Paperboard 295 290 346 365 387 1,388
Paper 185 190 222 236 260 908
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Personnel at the end of period 3,818 4,070 4,163 4,699 4,515 4,070
Deliveries are not fully comparable
due to structural changes.
EBITDA = Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and impairment charges
Near-term outlook
Cartonboard order books have normalised and utilisation rates have clearly
improved from the level of the turn of the year. Cartonboard delivery volumes
are estimated to improve in the second quarter, compared to the first quarter.
The cartonboard price levels are not expected to change materially in the
coming months. The extensive production downtime relating to the capacity
expansion at the Äänekoski folding boxboard mill will have a negative impact on
the profitability of the Paperboard business area in the second quarter.
Delivery volumes of paper products and pulp are not expected to change
significantly in the second quarter. The price of uncoated fine paper, which
has declined slightly at the beginning of the year, is estimated to increase
somewhat in the second quarter. The average coated paper price is estimated to
remain stable in the near future. The price of pulp is expected to increase
slightly in the coming months.
Production costs are not estimated to change materially in the coming months.
The first quarter operating losses of approximately EUR 16 million in the paper
units being restructured are estimated to decrease considerably in the second
quarter. The Äänekoski paper mill has been shut down and the operations of the
Reflex mill have been sold or shut down. Negotiations on shutting down the
Alizay mill and restructuring the Gohrsmühle mill have been completed and the
measures are progressing as planned.
Metsä Board's operating result for the second quarter of 2012, excluding
non-recurring items, is expected to improve from the first quarter of 2012.
Disclosure procedure
Metsä Board Corporation follows the disclosure procedure enabled by Standard
5.2b published by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority and hereby
publishes its Interim Report for January-March 2012 enclosed to this stock
exchange release. Metsä Board's complete Interim Report is attached to this
release in pdf-format and is also available on the company's web site at
www.metsaboard.com.
METSÄ BOARD CORPORATION
Further information:
Matti Mörsky, CFO, tel. +358 (0)10 465 4913
Juha Laine, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, tel. +358
(0)10 465 4335
More information will be available starting from 1 p.m. on 3 May 2012. A
conference call held in English for investors and analysts starts at 3 p.m.
(EET). Conference call participants are requested to dial in and register a few
minutes prior to the start of the conference call on the following numbers:
Europe: +44 (0)20 7162 0025
US: +1 334 323 6201
The conference ID is 915653.
Metsä Board is Europe's leading producer of fresh forest fibre cartonboards,
the world's leading manufacturer of coated white-top kraftliners, and a major
paper supplier. It offers premium solutions for consumer and retail packaging,
graphics and office end-uses. The company's sales network serves brand owners,
carton printers, corrugated packaging manufacturers, printers, merchants and
office suppliers. Metsä Board is part of Metsä Group and is listed on the
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. In 2011, Metsä Board's sales totalled EUR 2.5 billion.
Metsä Board has approximately 3,800 employees.
www.metsaboard.com