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Swissmetal on track Dornach, 22 November 2004
Financial statements for the period ended 30 September 2004 The Swissmetal Group's result for the first nine months of 2004 represents a significant improvement on 2003. Gross sales came to CHF 155.4 million (+22%), while gross added value sales (gross sales less value of metal) amounted to CHF 87.0 million. (+11 %). EBIT and EAT are well above year-back figures, while operating cash flow is lower.
To improve transparency, Swissmetal switched to a new business software package in the third quarter of 2004. As implementation of the SAP system is not yet completed, the financial reporting as of 30 September 2004 only contains statements indicating trends. The annual statement will be provided in the usual detailed form.
The first three quarters of 2004 saw the economic revival continue. In comparison with the comparable year-back period, gross sales rose by 22% to CHF 155.4 million, partly thanks to higher sales and partly because of high metal prices. At CHF 87.0 million, gross added value sales (sales less value of metal) were up 11% on the three year-back quarters.
Estimated EBIT came to between CHF 5.5 million and CHF 6.5 million (previous year CHF 1.4 million) despite the fact that EBIT was depressed in a first step by additional burdens in the form of an increase in temporary staff resulting from the higher order intake and higher costs resulting from the larger production volume.
In the third quarter of 2004, the financial result improved by CHF 0.4 million to CHF -2.2 million. In comparison with the previous year, the positive difference amounts to CHF 1.2 million. The non-operating and extraordinary result has shown a big improvement, with earnings of CHF 14.5 million posted for the first three quarters of 2004. Thanks to the significant improvement at EBIT level and the positive, oneoff non-operating effects, we can look forward to high earnings after taxes (EAT).
As a result of the capital increase and the positive result for the year to date, shareholders' equity has more than doubled in comparison with 31 December 2003 (CHF 52.6 million). Thanks to the capital increase and the purchase of previous interestbearing guarantees, the company's net indebtedness has been transformed into a net cash position.
Overall, the operating cash flow as of 30 September 2004 is down by around CHF 7 million on the previous year (CHF 8.5 million.), mainly because of special effects and the change in net current assets.
The clear growth in evidence since the beginning of 2004 is leading to higher capacity utilization at both of Swissmetal's plants in Dornach and Reconvilier. The bottleneck here is on the personnel side rather than in relation to technical capacity. Swissmetal is busy setting up new extra shifts to cope with the current high order intake. |
