The Governing Board of Europac Group (Papeles y Cartones de Europa, S.A.) approved the accounts corresponding to 2015. The company attained a net profit of 32.4 million Euros, 30.9% more than the 24.8 million in 2014. Furthermore, the consolidated EBITDA was 111.1 million Euros, 21.7% higher than the 91.3 million of the previous year.
The profit was 32.4 million Euros compared to the 24.8 million in 2014, whereas the EBITDA registered 111.1 million, 21.7% more than a year ago.
The improvement of the management of internal commercial and operational processes had a structural impact of 14.3 million Euros.
The financial cost dropped 20.3% after the signature of the new syndicated loan in July.
Europac invested 63.5 million in 2015, intended primarily for projects already under way, such as the packaging factory in Tangier, the acquisition of high-quality printing equipment in Spain and Portugal, and the second phase of the Proyecto Estucados de Dueñas [Coated paper project at Dueñas].
The Governing Board will suggest a supplementary dividend of up to a 50% pay out in the General Shareholders’ Meeting.
In a context of a slight increase in sales, which grew 2.8% reaching 1,083.7 million in 2015, the increase in the results can be explained by the management improvements with the implementation of internal commercial and operational processes, the increase in volume, the decrease in financial cost and, to a lesser extent, to the evolution of the market.
Internal management projects had an impact of 14.3 million Euros in 2015. From this, 4.3 million corresponds to the Packaging Division and 10.00 million to the Paper Division. The new syndicated loan executed in July entailed a 20.3% reduction of the financial cost thanks to the reduction of the debt volume and better funding costs. Moreover, 2016 shall be the first complete year in which the group shall benefit from the advantages of the new syndicated loan.
José Miguel Isidro, executive president of Europac Group, asserts that “these results, notably better than 2014, confirm the positive evolution of our business and the sustained growth trend. The structural impact that the internal management projects executed in 2015 shall have in the coming years shall be worthy of mention”. In this respect, he added, “Europac reaches each of the milestones to achieve the objectives defined in the Strategic Plan and these results represent the basis on which to continue growing in the coming years.”
