Press release
Moelven earned NOK 215 million from operations
Moelven Industrier ASA
Moelven Industrier ASA
In 2015 the Moelven Group improved its underlying operations by NOK 50 million and achieved an operating result of NOK 215 million.
Operating revenues increased by almost 10 per cent to NOK 9,690 million. Operating revenues in the fourth quarter increased by 15 per cent to NOK 2,483 million (NOK 2,151 million in the same period of 2014), and the operating result was NOK 65 million (NOK 48 million).
CEO Morten Kristiansen is satisfied that the group further increased its operating revenue and improved on its operating result from the previous year.
“This has been a year with great emphasis on internal improvement work and restructuring. Now our work appears to be paying off. The improved result is closely linked to the group's increase in operating revenue. Overall, Timber and Wood had somewhat lower prices than in the fourth quarter last year. Within Building Systems it is in particular the Building Module and glulam business in Sweden and Moelven Modus that are responsible for improvements. Individual units in Sweden are providing record results,” Kristiansen says.
The CEO says that the accounts for 2015 have been charged with NOK 94 million for losses incurred in connection with the sale of fixed assets and cost overruns on projects.
“For this reason, the results in the group's underlying operations are better than the operating result indicates,” Kristiansen says.
The remaining defined-benefit pension schemes in Norway have been converted to defined-contribution pension schemes in the course of the year. The change resulted in a positive non-recurring effect of NOK 26 million.
The gross operating margin (EBITDA) in 2015 increased to 5.7 per cent from 5.6 per cent in 2014, while return on capital employed (ROCE) for the year improved to 7.4 per cent from 6.8 per cent in 2014.
“Improvements in 2015 are satisfactory. Improvement and restructuring measures to achieve the long-term goals are going according to plan. Net interest-bearing debt has dropped by close to a quarter billion NOK from 2014 to 2015, and equity has increased by NOK 165 million to NOK 1,757 million,” says Kristansen.
In the final quarter of the year a dividend of NOK 52 million was disbursed.
The result for 2016 is expected to be somewhat better than in 2015 and the group is on schedule to achieve the long-term goal of a 13 per cent return on capital employed in 2018.