Corbion: Q4 and full year 2015 results

Amsterdam / NL. (cb) Corbion made significant progress in the execution of its Disciplined Value Creation strategy during 2015. Higher growth rates combined with the implementation of the Streamline productivity improvement program resulted in an organic Ebitda increase of 16.2 percent in 2015.

In Q4 2015 sales was 230.4 million EUR, an increase of 14.9 percent compared to Q4 2014. Ebitda excluding one-off items in Q4 2015 increased by 9.9 percent to 33.2 million EUR. Corbion confirms its intention to construct a 75kTpa PLA plant. The company proposes a return to shareholders of 75 million EUR, in addition to the regular dividend.

«I am very pleased with the progress we have made in 2015 in executing our strategy. As anticipated, Q4 profit growth was lower than in previous quarters partially due to several non-structural items. In 2016, our priorities under the Disciplined Value Creation strategy will be the completion of Streamline and driving profitable top-line growth. After successfully completing the pre-engineering phase we have commenced basic engineering for a 75kT PLA plant in Thailand, expected to be operational in the second half of 2018», commented Tjerk de Ruiter, CEO of Corbion.

Key financial highlights Q4 2015

• Net sales in Q4 increased by 14.9 percent to 230.4 million EUR; 4.5 percent organic growth
• Ebitda excluding one-off items in Q4 was 33.2 million EUR, an organic decrease of 6.0 percent
• Ebitda margin excluding one-off items was 14.4 percent in Q4 (Q4 2014: 15.1 percent)
• Streamline program: positive impact in Q4 of 4.0 million EUR on Ebitda
• One-off items in Q4 were 5.0 million EUR positive (Q4 2014: 12.8 million EUR negative), mainly due to insurance proceeds related to the Grandview incident in March 2015.

Key financial highlights FY 2015

• Net sales in FY 2015 increased by 19.2 percent to 918.3 million EUR; 4.6 percent organic growth
• Ebitda excluding one-off items in FY 2015 was 150.3 million EUR; 16.2 percent organic growth
• Net debt at the end of 2015 was 62.1 million EUR (net debt/Ebitda ratio of 0.4x)
• Streamline program: positive impact of 15.0 million EUR on FY 2015 Ebitda
• Proposed regular all-cash dividend of 0.43 EUR per share (2014: 0.21 EUR per share)
• Proposed additional return to shareholders of 75 million EUR.

Outlook 2016

We remain confident about our indicated 2015-2018 guidance range. Even though market conditions could become more difficult in 2016, our global exposure is geared towards mature markets, which should dampen the impact of a slowdown. For the Food business segment we expect a continued steady sales growth pattern, while the Biochemicals business segment is expected to show improved sales growth from Q2 onwards. We expect our Streamline program to reach its target annual savings level of 20 million EUR on a run-rate basis before the end of 2016. Volatility in Biobased Innovations Ebitda will remain high due to irregular product and sales order patterns and spend phasing of our major innovation initiatives.

The complete news release is available on the company’s web server.