EANS-Adhoc: Precious Woods Holding Ltd. 2012 was a challenging year
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Annual Reports/annual report/Sustainable forestmanagement
30.04.2013
Zug/Zurich, 30 April 2013 - 2012 was a challenging and difficult year - contrary
to the positive expectation at the beginning of the year. The result was
significantly impacted by the logistics crisis in Gabon and the cyclical
decrease in sales in the Benelux. The Precious Woods Group recorded consolidated
total revenue of USD 43.9 million in 2012 (2011: USD 69 million). The fall in
turnover is mainly a result of the transport- and shipping problems in Gabon and
the decline in sales at PW Europe. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation
and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to USD -3.8 million in 2012 being in line
with estimates from February 2013. This constitutes a worse result to the
previous year of USD 1.7 million. The net loss improved by contrast, from USD
-21.8 million to USD -17.7 million.
Precious Woods Amazon: positive operational progress
The sales figures in the Brazilian domestic market plummeted by 23% due to
increased competition with illegal timber. Thanks to the significant boost in
biomass sales and export sales, the sales volume decreased by only 4% to USD
14.2 million. Further improvements were made to reduce costs; in particular
productivity was significantly increased, which involved the reduction of 72
staff positions. The conversion of the first saw line as well as further process
optimisation had first positive impacts already in the second half of the year.
In addition, the last major non-operating assets were successfully sold at
profit. The divestment at BK Energia had a negative impact of USD 1.1 million in
the segment Brazil. The EBITDA amounts to USD -1.7 million which corresponds to
an improvement of USD 0.1 million on the previous year. Yet, from an operational
perspective, the operating result improved by USD 4.9 million.
Precious Woods Gabon: logistical constraints affecting the result
The national logistics crisis and its severe negative impacts on the business
year 2012 continued throughout the first half of the year and had consequences
for large parts of the remaining year because of backlogs. The complete forest
and wood sector of the country suffered similarly. The collapse of local log
sales, veneer exports and a sharp fall in sales prices was slightly absorbed by
a small increase in sawn-timber volumes. The production units had to also face
major technical problems on several occasions. Especially the new hard wood
sawmill (Bois Divers) still struggled with significant start-up difficulties.
The causes of the problems have been identified and some of them have been
resolved at once. Nevertheless, the production costs have been reduced above
average compared to the reduced sales. PW Gabon's results also remained way
below expectations in the second half of the year. Overall, EBITDA amounted to
USD -0.8 million in 2012, which corresponds to a painful decrease of USD 7.7
million compared to 2011.
Precious Woods Europe: Unchanged difficult market environment affects business
substantively
PW Europe suffered from the weak economy in the Benelux countries and recorded a
decline in sales by 36% to USD 13.7 million. Public spending as well as private
consumption went further down and led to a recession. Nevertheless, the result
has been improved by USD 0.8 million to USD -1.0 million, because the labour
costs were reduced by USD 1.5 million.
Carbon & Energy: marked by divestment in BK Energia
In 2012, the business segment Carbon & Energy registered a net turnover of USD
1.9 million (-68% on 2011 as BK Energia was consolidated for only 3 months) and
a positive EBITDA of USD 3.5 million, which is USD 1 million above the result of
the previous year. By the sale of 40% of the shares in BK Energia, the
indebtedness could be lowered and a long-standing lawsuit solved in Brazil. The
reported divestment had a one-off positive effect of around USD 3.4 million on
EBITDA.
Corporate activities: great cost reduction
For corporate activities, expenses at EBITDA level have been reduced by USD 4.1
million to USD 3.9 million. Above all, administration, consulting and labour
costs have been reduced significantly. These costs will further decrease in
2013. By now, the holding including trading administration consists of less than
8 full-time positions.
Financial result: improved
At USD -4.9 million, the financial result improved USD 8.1 million on the
previous year. Due to the lower debt, financing costs have been reduced by USD
2.3 million. At the same time the previous year's result was financially
impacted by an impairment of USD 3 million. In 2012, the burden of currency
fluctuations was also USD 2.8 million lower.
Precious Woods Holding Ltd: Secured liquidity
On October 2012, the remaining minority of 25% stake in Precious Woods Central
America was successfully sold for USD 13.7 million. The capital received by the
divestment was primarily used to repay early, two convertible loans with a total
nominal value of CHF 7 million and two loans totalling USD 5 million. On the
other hand, capital measures were initiated in order to secure liquidity in the
medium term as determined by the Board of Directors. Two convertible loans of
CHF 2 million each were committed by two investors in the last quarter of the
year and the extraordinary General Meeting on 18.12.2012 approved with an
overwhelming majority the additional statutory capital increase of CHF 0.3
million. In the meantime, this increase of capital was fully subscribed.
Annual General Meeting 2013
The Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday, 22 May 2013, at 3.15
p.m. in the Volkshaus, Stauffacherstrasse 60, Zurich. Invitations to the Annual
General Meeting, together with the full agenda and the proposals of the Board of
Directors, will be published on 2 May 2013 in the Swiss Official Gazette of
Commerce (SOGC) and on the Precious Woods website. The Board of Directors
proposes Mr. Werner Fleischmann to be elected as a new Board member.
The full Annual Report is now available for download from the website
www.preciouswoods.com.
end of ad-hoc-announcement
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Precious Woods is an international company active in the sustainable management
and use of tropical forests. The company's core activities include sustainable
management of tropical forests, timber processing and the trading of
FSC-certified timber products. The generation of emission rights and electricity
from wood waste represent further integral elements of the company's business.
Shares of Precious Woods Holding Ltd have been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange
since March 2002. Additional information about Precious Woods can be found at
www.preciouswoods.com
This document includes forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's
intentions, beliefs or current expectations and projections about the Company's
future results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, performance,
prospects, strategies, opportunities and the industry in which it operates.
Forward-looking statements involve all matters that are not historical fact.
Such statements are made on the basis of assumptions and expectations which,
although the Company believes them to be reasonable at this time, may prove to
be erroneous.
Further inquiry note:
Precious Woods Holding AG, Jacqueline Martinoli, Head of Finance /
Communications, Tel. +41 44 245 80 15, Fax +41 44 245 80 12,
media@preciouswoods.com
end of announcement euro adhoc
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issuer: Precious Woods Holding Ltd.
Baarerstrasse 79
CH-6301 Zug
phone: +41 44 245 80 10
FAX: +41 44 245 80 12
mail: media@preciouswoods.com
WWW: http://www.preciouswoods.com
sector: Forestry & Timber
ISIN: CH0013283368
indexes: SPI
stockmarkets: Main Standard: SIX Swiss Exchange
language: English