Half year results 2019

Regulated information - 27 September 2019 – 18:30

Headlines - Financial results

During the first semester of 2019 Campine achieved a revenue of 101,9 mio € (2018: 113,8 mio €). Profit after taxes amounted to 2,33 mio €, (2017: 4,67 mio €). The reduction in sales (-10,4%) and profit (-50,0%) are solely related to the lower metal prices in 2019.

“2019 turns out to be a difficult year.” explains CEO De Vos “The industrial demand for many of our products is currently weak. Additionally, the lead and antimony metal prices, which form the bases of our sales prices, have declined substantially. In the short term, this also puts our margins under pressure.”

Antimony metal prices dropped on average 12,5% compared to the 1st semester 2018, whilst LME lead prices dropped even with an average of 14,4%.

“During the summer months the LME lead prices have recovered and in September the continuous decrease in antimony metal price seems to have reached its bottom. These should both have a positive effect on the results in the last quarter. We expect therefore to end 2019 with a relatively good result seen the difficult market conditions.” adds De Vos.

“We remain a cyclical company, but through diversification, volume growth and increased operational efficiency Campine managed to realise a positive result during a downward market cycle.” concludes Chairman De Groote.

Performances per division

Division Specialty Chemicals

Market and Operations

The expected growth in the demand for flame retardants did not materialise in 2019. Especially the demand for automotive applications was weak. The uncertainty in many markets and the consecutive price decreases have led to a destocking and maximum postponement of new orders at our customers. Volumes decreased with 8% compared to the 1st semester 2018.
Sales revenue decreased to 43,7 mio € as a result of lower volumes as well as lower sales prices of our antimony products. The revenue decrease was limited to 8% thanks to a different product mix and higher prices of our other flame retardant masterbatch products.
The weak demand resulted in higher competition with consequential pressure on the margins. The operating result was also impacted by the devaluation of our stocks due to the lower raw material prices. All this resulted in a break-even result of 0,01 mio € (compared to a profit of 1,87 Mio € in the same period in 2018).

Division Metals Recycling

Market and Operations

Over 80% of our lead products are used to produce batteries, of which most go to the automotive sector. Despite the lower demand for car batteries we were able to increase our sales volumes to 34.177 ton (in 2018: 32.896 ton) by securing additional business. Thanks to the new filter installation put in operation in the second half of last year, we were able to make gains in efficiency.
The average LME lead prices during the first 6 months of 2019 (1.735 €/ton) were considerably lower than those of the first semester 2018 (2.028 €/ton). Since our sales prices are directly linked with the LME, revenues consequently reduced to 65,53 mio € (from 73,57 mio € in 2018), which is a decrease of -10,9%.
The operating result in our recycling business model suffered from the low primary lead LME prices and reduced accordingly to 3.168 mio € (from 5.240 mio € in 2018).
The activities from the Metals Recovery business, in which other metals are regained from scraps, contributed again substantially to the profit.

Outlook 2019 / 2020

We foresee the weak demand to sustain for the rest of the year in all our businesses. An uptake is only expected during 2020. It seems like the decrease of the antimony metal prices has slowly reached its bottom during September, so we expect better results in the Specialty Chemicals division in the 4th quarter. The positive evolution during the summer months of the LME lead prices from below 1.700 €/ton to over 1.850 €/ton should contribute to a better result for the Metals Recycling unit in the 2nd semester.

All in all, Campine expects to close this difficult year 2019 with an average positive result.

The full press release and interim financial report are available in annex and on on our website www.campine.com: Investors/shareholder information/financial reports and calendar/Financial reports/interim financial report 2019.

This information is also available in Dutch. Only the Dutch version is the official version. The English version is a translation of the original Dutch version.

For further information you can contact Karin Leysen (tel. no +32 14 60 15 49) (email: Karin.Leysen@campine.be).

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