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[April 2004]
Earning Up by Over 50% at Refractories Group
The Supervisory Board of refractories group RHI AG (Austria) met on 21 April 2004 and confirmed the preliminary results for the year 2003. Net income after minorities was €72.9 million, up 55.4% from the 2002 figure of €46.9 million.
With the results for 2003, RHI said it had confirmed its sustainable return to the profit zone. EBIT rose by 3.7% to €122 million, yielding an EBIT margin of 9.9% compared to 8.7% in 2002. The financial result improved by 35.1% to -€30.2 million from -€46.5 million in 2002. Income taxes were reduced by 26.6% and amounted to -€18.8 million.
The group reported consolidated sales revenues of €1.2326 billion for 2003 as against €1.3580 billion in 2002; the 9% decline was primarily due to the sale of the Engineering Division in mid-2002 and the Waterproofing Division in 2003. The RHI Group's concentration on the core business Refractories and the Insulating Division has thus largely been completed.
The group commented: "The earnings outlook for the RHI Group for 2004 is overall positive, provided the world economy is not subjected to renewed recessionary or exchange rate pressures. RHI will fulfill its capital restructuring objectives in the coming year and will continue to spur on the group's positive development with targeted investments. The order situation in the RHI Group remains good world-wide in the year 2004".
ENDS