Aalberts N.V.: Aalberts accelerates strategy and continues investments and innovations; solid and resilient performance with strong free cash flow
Utrecht, 24 February 2021
highlights
o limited number of COVID-19 infections; continued operations in a safe way
o revenue EUR 2,610 million; organic decline 7.0%
o orderbook at year-end 9.3% higher than last year
o EBITA amounted to EUR 283* million; as a % of revenue 10.8*
o net profit before amortisation EUR 200* million; per share EUR 1.81*
o strong free cash flow of EUR 339 million
o net debt (before IFRS 16) reduced with 24% to EUR 444 million
o continued investments and innovations; capital expenditure EUR 95 million
o acceleration strategy: one-off full year strategic restructuring cost (SRC) of EUR 51 million with an annual benefit of approx. EUR 50 million
CEO statement
“We are fortunate that we only faced a limited number of COVID-19 infections. Our Aalberts people did a great job in continuing our operations in a safe way, serving our customers worldwide. Our business was impacted with an organic revenue decline of 7%. We focused on cash management, cost optimisations and innovations. We delivered a resilient and solid performance with an added-value of 61.6% and an EBITA of EUR 283* million, reflecting our portfolio and market position improvements over the last years.
In the first half of the year we accelerated our strategy with many strategic restructuring projects to simplify our organisation, reduce our structural costs and to further improve our portfolio to evolve into a stronger and better Aalberts, realising our strategic objectives. This has led to a one-off strategic restructuring cost during 2020, which will partly benefit 2020 and fully 2021.
We continued our capital expenditure (EUR 95 million) in growing product lines, future technologies and innovations and strengthened our R&D capacity. Some building and capacity expansion investments were postponed.”
dividend
We propose a cash dividend of EUR 0.60 per share (2019: EUR 0.80) to the General Meeting, a decrease of 25%.
outlook
We will drive our organic revenue growth and innovation initiatives and increase our capital expenditure. We continue the strategic restructuring projects and inventory reduction programme and further improve our portfolio to realise our strategic objectives. We will continue to strengthen our market positions and niche technologies with bolt-on acquisitions.
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