Gurit’s 1HY results impacted by weak wind energy demand
 
Zürich, August 23, 2013. Gurit (SIX Swiss Exchange: GUR) achieved net sales of CHF 129.7 million in the first six months of 2013. This represents a decline of 33.7% over the respective strong, prior-year period, as already announced and commented on July 12, 2013. The negative sales trend mainly reflects the poor demand and weak price levels in the volatile global wind energy market. Sales to non-wind energy related customers continue to grow and Gurit makes important inroads into new applications for composite materials, parts and services. For the full year 2013, Gurit continues to expect net sales to be somewhat below CHF 300 million and the operating profit margin to reach 3-5%.
 

Operational and financial result: The low sales level of the first half-year, the resulting low absorption of fixed costs, and fierce price competition particularly in the Asian wind energy markets have led to the compression of the operating profit to CHF 0.6 million. A year ago, Gurit recorded a strong operating profit of CHF 17.2 million, including one-time impairment charges of net CHF 2.9 million. After income tax expenses of CHF 2.5 million, Gurit states a loss for the period of CHF 2.4 million. These tax expenses incurred as Gurit achieved the majority of its profit in higher tax jurisdictions in Europe and did not capitalise tax assets on some losses incurred in other regions.

                               

Cash flow and balance sheet: Mostly reflecting the significantly lower operating profit before depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”), cash flow from operating activities declined to CHF 1.7 million compared with a strong CHF 16.8 million generated in the same period of last year. Gurit paid back borrowings of CHF 9.6 million. As sales volumes increased in the second quarter 2013 versus the low volumes recorded in Q4 2012, some cash was also required to finance additional working capital. Together with the CHF 7.0 million distributions to shareholders this turned the net cash position of CHF 6.0 million recorded at year-end 2012 into a net debt position of CHF 1.8 million. The distribution to the shareholders was also the main reason for the small decrease of the equity ratio by 1.1 percentage points from 70.5% at the end of last year to still solid 69.4% as per June 30, 2013.

 

Sales trends and outlook: Sales to non-wind energy related customers continue to grow and Gurit makes important inroads into new applications for composite materials, parts and services. Going forward, Gurit will better be able to balance out the volatile sales levels in the global wind energy market and achieve growth.

On a sequential basis, Q2 2013 sales grew by 13.1% compared with Q1 2013, confirming the anticipated sales recovery, yet at a lower than expected pace. As announced on July 12, 2013, Gurit expects net sales for the full year 2013 to be somewhat below CHF 300 million and the operating profit margin to reach 3-5%.

 

 

 

Key financial figures
in CHF 1000

1HY 2012

1HY 2013

% change

% change at const.  2013 rates

 

 

 

 

 

Net sales by markets:

 

 

 

 

Wind Energy

120’744

54’393

-55.0%

-55.3%

Aero

23’901

23’506

-1.7%

-2.8%

Industrial & Marine

27’621

31’158

12.8%

12.4%

Composite Materials

172’266

109’057

-36.7%

-37.2%

Automotive

4’201

6’881

63.8%

65.8%

Tooling

17’380

10’655

-38.7%

-39.8%

Engineered Structures

1’799

3’057

69.9%

70.4%

Composite Systems and Engineering

23’380

20’593

-11.9%

-12.9%

Total net sales

195’646

129’650

-33.7%

-34.2%

       

 

Operating profit

17’173

610

-96.4%

 

       

 

Profit for the period

10’626

-2’363

-122.2%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operating cash flow

16’773

1’689

-89.9%

 

Capital expenditures

2’461

2’806

14.0%

 

Income tax (expense)/credit

-6’136

-2’514

-59.0%

 

Profit before tax

16’762

151

-99.1%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tax rate

36.6%

 –

 

Equity ratio

55.7%

69.4%

 –

 

 

 

Online publication of half-year report: The Half-Year Report 2013 and SHAPE – The Gurit Magazine have been optimized for online and mobile reading and are available at http://investors.gurit.com/download-archive.aspx. Also available online is the Half-Year 2013 Results Presentation.

Conference Call and Webcast: A Media/Analyst Conference Call is scheduled for 09:00 a.m. today. Please dial in some 10 minutes prior to the call using the following numbers:

 

  • Switzerland:              +41 58 262 07 22
  • Germany:                  0800 181 93 93 (toll free)
  • Great Britain:             0808 234 88 76 (toll free)
  • USA:                          +1 866 591 43 61 or +1 888 50 333 35 (toll free)

 

The PIN to access the telephone conference is 256277.

 

During the conference, participants will be in a listen-only mode. To ask questions, please dial *14 on your telephone, to pull back a question, press *15. Questions will be answered in a chronological order.

 

The conference call is also simultaneously available as an international webcast at http://investors.gurit.com/webcasts.aspx where later a recording will be archived.

 

 
 

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