Metso's Interim Review January 1 - September 30, 2014


HELSINKI, Finland, Oct. 23, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We will arrange an audiocast on Metso's January-September 2014 Interim Review at 15:00 EEST ( 8:00 EDT, 13:00 BST, 14:00 CEST). The audiocast is viewable at www.metso.com/IRwebcasts. A simultaneous conference call is arranged which allows participants to ask questions.  Details of the event can be found at the end of this release.

This is a summary of Metso's January-September 2014 Interim Review. The complete report is attached to this release as a pdf-file and is also available at www.metso.com/investors.

Figures in brackets refer to the comparison period, i.e. the same period last year and all figures relate to Metso's continuing operations, unless otherwise stated.

Third quarter 2014 in brief

  • Metso launched its new strategy targeting focused growth and higher profitability
  • Market conditions remained largely unchanged compared to the previous quarter
  • Services business continued to develop well
  • Orders received: EUR 786 million (EUR 825 million), of which EUR 493 million (EUR 470 million) were services orders
  • Net sales: EUR 861 million (EUR 937 million), of which EUR 490 million services (EUR 495 million)
  • EBITA before non-recurring items: EUR 104 million or 12.1 percent of net sales (EUR 129 million, 13.7%). Non-recurring items totaled EUR -27 million (EUR 0 million), majority of which was related to the impairment loss of a long-term loan to Northland Resources.

Financial guidance for 2014

Our guidance for 2014 (originally published on February 6, 2014) remains unchanged. We estimate that our net sales in 2014 will be somewhat below 2013 and that our EBITA margin before non-recurring items for 2014 will be around 12 percent of net sales.

This guidance is based on our current market outlook, the order backlog for 2014, and cost efficiency actions, as well as foreign exchange rates remaining similar to those in September 2014.

President and CEO Matti Kähkönen:

"The most important highlight for us in the third quarter was the launch of Metso's new strategy. Under this, we will continue our transformation into a more focused and more integrated company with higher profitability. Metso is in a good position to leverage its core competencies and assets to strengthen its leadership in minerals processing, as well as gain ground in flow control. Going forward, we will scale up our efforts aimed at reaching our operational and financial targets and delivering greater value for our shareholders.
 
Operationally, there were two aspects to our third quarter. Positive developments were seen in the Services business and in Flow Control, both of which reported increased orders and higher profitability year-on-year. Challenges in the mining equipment market, which we have seen for a number of quarters, continued, however. Demand remained weak, at roughly the same level of the two previous quarters this year. A smaller order backlog puts pressure on net sales for this business, and this has had a negative impact on our quarterly result. I must say, however, that I'm pleased to see that these challenges are largely volume-driven, and that our personnel have worked hard to maintain stable gross margins in these difficult circumstances."
 
Key figures

EUR million  

Q3/
2014
 

Q3/
2013
 

Change %
Q1-Q3/ 2014 Q1-Q3/ 2013  

Change %
 


2013
Orders received 786 825 -5 2,608 2,824 -8 3,709
Orders received by the services business 493 470 5 1,572 1,581 -1 2,038
  % of orders received 63 57   60 56   55
Order backlog at the end of the period       1,872 2,117 -12 1,927
Net sales 861 937 -8 2,640 2,840 -7 3,858
Net sales of the services business 490 495 -1 1,435 1,468 -2 1,976
  % of net sales 57 53   54 52   51
Earnings before interests, tax and amortization (EBITA) and non-recurring items 104 129 -19 323 349 -8 496
  % of net sales 12.1 13.7   12.2 12.3   12.8
Operating profit 72 124 -42 250 315 -21 423
  % of net sales 8.4 13.3   9.5 11.1   11.0
Earnings per share, EUR 0.26 0.52   0.89 1.24   1.59
Free cash flow 46 104 -56 141 186 -24 251
Return on capital employed (ROCE) before taxes, annualized, %       15.5 18.5   18.6
Equity-to-asset ratio at the end of the period, %       38.9 36.1   36.9
Net gearing at the end of the period, % 4 46   49.6 40.4   41.6

For illustrative purposes, the balance sheet key figures for the comparison period have been restated to represent continuing operations.

Short-term market outlook

We expect demand for mining equipment and projects to remain weak but stable. Due to our large installed equipment base and our stronger services presence, we expect demand for our mining services to remain good.

Demand for aggregates equipment and related services is expected to be satisfactory.

Demand for products and services for our valves and pumps businesses is expected to remain good, whereas demand for our process automation systems business is expected to remain satisfactory.

Metso is a leading process performance provider, with customers in the mining, oil and gas, and aggregates industries. Metso's cutting-edge services and solutions improve availability and reliability in minerals processing and flow control, providing sustainable process and profit improvements. Metso is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, Finland. In 2013, Metso's net sales totaled EUR 3.8 billion. Metso employs approximately 16,000 industry experts in 50 countries. Expect results.

www.metso.com, www.twitter.com/metsogroup

Further information, please contact:

Matti Kähkönen, President and CEO, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3001
Harri Nikunen, CFO, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3010
Juha Rouhiainen, VP, Investor Relations, Metso Corporation, tel +358 20 484 3253

Metso will arrange an audiocast today at 15:00 EEST (8:00 EDT, 13:00 BST, 14:00 CEST). The audiocast is viewable at www.metso.com/IRwebcasts. A simultaneous conference call is arranged which allows participants to ask questions.

Recording of the event is available at same location www.metso.com/IRwebcasts after the event has finished and a transcript will be available on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at the latest.

Conference call details

Conference call participants are requested to dial in five minutes before the scheduled time on:
United States: +1 855 269 2605
other countries: +44 20 3194 0550

Metso will not arrange a separate event at its headquarters for investors, analysts or media.

Metso Corporation

Harri Nikunen

CFO

Juha Rouhiainen

VP, Investor Relations

Distribution:

NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd

Media

www.metso.com

Metso interim review Q3 2014 http://hugin.info/3017/R/1865116/654834.pdf

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