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[February 2010]
Wienerberger Increases Free Cash Flow by 28% Despite Crisis
Wienerberger AG (Vienna, Austria), the world’s largest producer of bricks and the number one in clay roof tiles in Europe, is reporting a 25% year-on-year drop in revenues for the difficult 2009 financial year. Shaken consumer confidence and, above all, a lack of financing triggered a major contraction in new construction in all Wienerberger markets.
Declining sales volumes and slightly lower average prices, as well as the cost of extensive plant standstills to reduce inventories as part of the active working capital management programme, led, as expected, to weaker operating results for Wienerberger in 2009. Preliminary operating EBITDA (before restructuring costs) fell by 53% to €208.6 million and preliminary operating EBIT by 92% to €19.0 million. Preliminary EBIT after one off effects totalled €-258.1 million following the recognition of €121.4 million in restructuring costs for optimisation measures (including €52.6 million of cash expenses), €32.3 million of impairment charges to real estate and €123.3 million of impairment charges to goodwill. The deduction of the preliminary financial result of €37.5 million and the addition of preliminary tax benefits of €36.9 million resulted in a loss after tax of €258.7 million and preliminary earnings per share of €-3.17 (adjusted earnings per share: €-0.34).
The decisive implementation of the cost reduction programme and, above all, the significant reduction of working capital and investments allowed Wienerberger to increase free cash flow by an impressive 28% to around €250 million for the reporting year despite weaker operating results in a difficult market environment.
“2009 was an extremely challenging year that was also marked by extensive restructuring,” explained Heimo Scheuch, CEO of Wienerberger AG. “We were faced with significantly lower demand for building materials in all our markets. The biggest disappointment was North America, which has remained on a downward spiral since 2006 and fell substantially below expectations in 2009 with a further 36% drop in revenues to €149.0 million. Operating EBITDA in this segment was negative at €-13.3 million as a result of costs incurred to cut capacity to a low level of 20% in order to reduce inventories. On a positive note, we were successful in holding prices constant in spite of a difficult US market climate.”
www.wienerberger.com
ENDS