Titan - July 2017
Titan's first-half turnover improved by 6.9 per cent to EUR773.8m and EBITDA advanced by 18.9 per cent to EUR142.1m. Following a 5.3 per cent reduction in the depreciation charge, the trading profit rose by 43.7 per cent to EUR84.8m. After a net financial charge 17.9 per cent lower at EUR28.5m and other items, notably foreign exchange, the pretax profit jumped from EUR7.4m to EUR31.7m. At the net attributable level the advanced from EUR9.2m to EUR13.9m. Capital investment increased from EUR62m to EUR72m. Net debt at the end of June increased by 19 per cent to EUR787m to give a gearing level of 59.3 per cent.
Group deliveries of cementitious materials increased by 16 per cent to 9.4Mt while aggregates shipments were stable at 8Mt as the increase in the USA was offset by declines elsewhere. Ready-mixed concrete deliveries improved by 18.3 per cent to 2.35Mm³.
The Greek and western European turnover declined by 3.2 per cent to EUR129.1m and EBITDA fell by 30.5 per cent to EUR13.7m. Greek domestic deliveries declined further, with no improvement expected in the short term and the vast majority of the group’s Greek production is now exported, which means lower average pricing.
In southeastern Europe, turnover showed an 11.3 per cent improvement to EUR108m, but the EBITDA declined by 8.8 per cent to EUR23.6m. Cement demand across the region remains weak and capacity utilisation remains poor and competition continues to be intense, notably in Bulgaria, and higher energy costs have had a negative effect on profitability.
In the United States turnover rose by 22.4 per cent to EUR456.0m and EBITDA advanced by 77.2 per cent to EUR92.4m. Florida and Virginia remain positive, but the New York-New Jersey market is becoming more competitive as capacity is being added. The vertically-integrated operations performed notably strongly as a result of recent investments in aggregates, concrete and fly-ash.
The eastern Mediterranean operations, of which only Egypt is consolidated, saw turnover decline by 33.3 per cent to EUR80.7m and EBITDA fell from EUR21.4m to EUR12.4m, reflecting higher financial costs. All the kilns have now been converted to burn coal. The Turkish joint venture was negatively affected by an 18 per cent drop in cement volume as well as the weakness of the local currency. The new joint venture in Brazil suffered from weak pricing and saw profits decline in spite of a volume improvement.
