In the past year we have made strategic choices involving our customer and product portfolios. These choices resulted in a significant margin improvement, but at the same time had an adverse, albeit temporary, impact on our top-line growth in the year. For 2017, we are confident top-line growth will return to our guidance range. A notable highlight in the second half of the year was the announcement of the PLA joint venture together with Total, a market leader with technical and marketing expertise and a leading position in polymers,” commented Tjerk de Ruiter, CEO.
Key financial highlights FY 2016
- Net sales organic growth was -1.2%; volume growth was -1.2%
- EBITDA excluding one-off items was € 170.1 million, an organic increase of 13.8%
- EBITDA margin excluding one-off items was 18.7%, up from 16.4%
- “Streamline” contributed € 20 million to EBITDA (2015: € 15 million)
- One-off items at EBITDA level of € -3.2 million in 2016, mostly in connection with the closure of our Kansas powder blending plant, partly offset by the sale of the Breddo-Likwifier activities
- Operating result was € 126.9 million, an organic increase of 17.5%
- Free cash flow was € 72.1 million (2015: € 55.2 million)
- Net debt/EBITDA at year-end was 0.6x (2015: 0.4x)
- Our € 50 million share-buyback program was finalized on 28 October 2016.
Key figures
