Alba SE has improved its result over the first six months of 2015. Earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 76.2 percent to EUR 16.0 million compared to EUR 9.1 million in the first quarter of 2014. EBITDA improved to EUR 24.7 million in the first half of 2015 and were thus by more than 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure of EUR 21.5 million. Revenue grew by almost 6 per cent to EUR 792.6 million (previous year’s value: EUR 748.7 million).
“In light of the persistently difficult economic conditions in the steel and metals recycling segment and the fierce competition in the services segment, we performed well in the first half year of 2015”, Dr. Axel Schweitzer, Chairman of the Administrative Board said.
The difficult market situation in the Steel and metals recycling segment put pressure on the margins and affected the result. However, the segment was able to overcompensate for these effects. Revenue was up from EUR 595.2 million in the first six months of 2014 to EUR 621.4 million in the first half year of 2015. Reasons for this rise were a higher number of traded tonnes of non-ferrous metals and higher prices for aluminium. And the revenue rose due to exchange rate effects in particular regarding copper which were the result of the weak Euro. This trend overcompensated the lower revenue achieved with the trade in iron scrap quantities.
In the first two quarters of 2015, the traded quantity of iron scrap of 1.12 million tonnes was only negligibly below the quantity traded in the comparative period (1.18 million tonnes), the volume of traded non-ferrous metals amounted to 183,000 tonnes and was slightly up by 12,000 tonnes. Taking into account the portfolio optimisation performed in the second half of 2014, ALBA SE was able to increase the traded iron scrap volume by 134,000 tonnes and the marketed volume of non-ferrous metals by 19,000 tonnes.
In the first six months of 2015, the services segment generated revenue of EUR 172.1 and thus significantly more than in the previous year (1st half year 2014: EUR 155.0 million). Especially the sales packaging business achieved a significant rise in revenue. Reason for this trend is the higher volume of licensed packaging, caused by the seventh amendment of the Packaging Ordinance. Another positive effect came from the liberalisation of the Austrian market for recycling of sales packaging.
In total, Alba SE expects a slight revenue increase for the financial year 2015 and a strong increase of the EBITDA compared to 2014. Toward the end of the financial year, the management again expects a positive EBT which will have equally strongly improved. This would confirm the turnaround for the entire year.
