Nobia AB: Interim Report January-December 2015

Regulatory News:

Nobia AB (STO:NOBI)

October-December 2015

• Net sales excluding items affecting comparability of a negative SEK 4 million (–) amounted to SEK 3,306 million (3,014), positively impacted by currency effects and organic growth.

• Organic growth was 3 per cent (5).

• Operating profit, excluding items affecting comparability of a negative SEK 96 million (neg: 97) pertaining to impairment in Poggenpohl, amounted to SEK 287 million (270), corresponding to an operating margin of 8.7 per cent (9.0).

• Currency gains of approximately SEK 35 million had a positive effect on the Group’s operating profit, excluding items affecting comparability, of which SEK 10 million comprised translation effects and SEK 25 million transaction effects.

• Profit after tax, including items affecting comparability, amounted to SEK 128 million (57), corresponding to earnings per share of SEK 0.77 (0.33).

• Operating cash flow amounted to SEK 292 million (301).

• The Board proposes a dividend of SEK 2.50 per share (1.75).

Consolidated net sales, earnings and cash flow

Overall market performance is deemed to have improved compared with the year-earlier period. The Nordic and the UK markets strengthened, while Nobia’s markets in the Central Europe region were unchanged.

Sales increased organically 3 per cent (5). Currency gains of SEK 104 million (171) affected sales for the quarter. Commodore and CIE, which were consolidated on 1 November 2015, generated net sales of SEK 68 million during the last two months of the year.

The gross margin excluding items affecting comparability amounted to 39.8 per cent (40.7), negatively impacted primarily by Rixonway, Commodore and CIE having structurally lower gross margins.

Operating profit improved primarily as a result of higher sales volumes and positive currency effects.

The return on operating capital including items affecting comparability was 26.9 per cent over the past twelve-month period (Jan-Dec 2014: 23.2). The return on shareholders’ equity including items affecting comparability was 24.1 per cent over the past twelve-month period (Jan-Dec 2014: neg 0.9).

Operating cash flow declined mainly due to the negative change in working capital and higher investments.

Comments from the CEO

"In 2015, Nobia achieved the highest operating margin in the company’s history, despite fourth-quarter earnings being impacted by both a number of nonrecurring items and operational disruptions in a couple of markets. These disruptions have now been addressed and in 2016 we will achieve the target of an operating margin of 10 per cent,” says Morten Falkenberg, President and CEO.

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