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[November 2007]
Marazzi Announces Q3 Figures
Marazzi Group’s Board of Directors, chaired by Filippo Marazzi, has approved the consolidated third quarter results as of 30 September 2007. The third quarter of the year saw a marked deterioration in the economic climate, a consequence of the subprime mortgage crisis in the USA, whose effects rapidly spread to Europe; in the USA there was a further decline in the construction industry, while in Europe there were signs of a slowdown in the real estate market with a possible impact on the level of consumption.
In this economic climate, the group in fact succeeded in accelerating the growth trends already seen in the first quarter, consolidating the improvements in the financial indicators, despite the fact that the 8% depreciation of the US$ significantly reduces the direct comparison with the results in the same period of the previous year.
In the third quarter, revenues from sales amounted to €247.7 million, a growth of 4.4% (+6.2% excluding the exchange effect) compared to the same period of 2006. Sales in Europe recorded a strong increase in the Italian and Spanish Business Units (+2.2% and +9.8% respectively), with an increase in the penetration of both the domestic markets and of the main Central and Eastern European markets. In particular, the positive sales dynamics for ceramic products continues in the Italian Business Unit (BU) (+5.4%), while sales of raw materials and semi-finished products decreased by 12.4%. The French BU recorded sales in line with the same period of the previous year.
The Russian BU continued with growth rates well ahead of the market. Sales in the third quarter of 2007 grew by 23% (+25.9% on like-for-like exchange rates). Although the US real estate market does not show signs of improvement (the data of the US Census Bureau estimated a decrease in the consumption of tiles of 19% in the first six months of 2007, with a trend of a further slowdown in the following quarter), sales of the USA BU registered an increase of 4.1% in US$ (-3.2% in €), reversing the trend following three quarters in decline
EBITDA reached €47 million in the third quarter (+6.5%; +8.8% at contant FX rates) while net income at €17 million grew by 5.0% in the third quarter (+7.7% at constant FX rates), growth in fact continued due to the greater competitiveness of domestic production compared to imports (which represents more than 75% of US consumption), also strengthened by the progressive depreciation of the US$.
The results for the quarter therefore consolidated the growth trend already registered in the first six months of the year: in the period January to September, consolidated sales grew by 3.9% amounting to €756.2 million (+5.6% on like-for-like exchange rates). All the Business Units, with the exception of France, registered increases higher than their relative markets: in the first nine months, the Russian BU grew by 29.7% (+32.6% on like-for-like exchange rate); revenues in Italy grew by 5.5%; the Spanish BU grew by 8.4%. In a market that has declined by approximately 20%, revenues in the USA in the first nine months of 2007 decreased by 4% in US$ terms (-11.2% in €).
The results in the first nine months of the year strengthened market share both in the domestic markets of the individual BUs and in the international markets served by the Italian and Spanish BUs.
The EBITDA in the third quarter amounted to €46.9 million, +6.5% compared to the same period in 2006 (+8.8% excluding the exchange effect). Particularly good results were achieved by the Italian, Russian and USA BUs.
In the first nine months of the year, the EBITDA grew by 2.6% (+4.6% on like-for-like exchange rates), with a sales margin of 18.4%, broadly in line with the same period of the previous year. The quarter reports a more marked increase in the EBIT, amounting to €33.7 million, an increase of 10.7% (+13.1% at constant FX rates) on the same period in the previous year. The EBIT for the first nine months amounted to €98 million, an increase of 7.3% (+9.5% at constant FX rates).
ENDS