PORTUGAL - Consolidated sales turnover of Sonae Industria reached EUR 230.0 million in 2019, an improvement of 4.5% vs. last year, driven by the North American business.

For the quarter, consolidated turnover reached 55.2 million euros, which represents an increase of EUR 3.9 million compared to same period of last year, mainly driven by the North American business.

Recurrent EBITDA in 2019 reached EUR 26.5 million, a reduction of 0.2 million euros vs. 2018 (-0.7 per cent). Recurrent EBITDA for the 4Q-2019 stood at EUR 5.1 million, with recurrent EBITDA margin of 9.2%, an increase of 1.0 million euros and of 1.4 p.p., respectively, when compared to 4Q-2018 which included the effect of the fire occurred in one of the Canadian particleboard lines.

Net results in 2019 were negative with a loss of EUR 13.4 million, which compares with a profit of EUR 11.0 million in 2018.

“The worldwide propagation of COVID-19 in the first months of 2020 is having negative human, social, economic and financial impacts”, the company reports. “The extraordinary measures imposed by the authorities in the several regions where Sonae Indústria conducts its business (namely Europe, North America and South Africa) have also had a significant impact not only on daily lives of people but also on businesses including Sonae Indústria operations”, it concludes.

Accordingly, during the last few days and as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic the following developments have taken place:

• Sonae Arauco has temporarily shut down its industrial units in Spain and South Africa, countries where legal provisions set out by local authorities to fight the pandemic currently prevent the continuation of activity for most businesses;
• The North American business has partially and temporarily shut down its industrial activity in Lac Mégantic, Canada (in accordance with legal provisions set out by local authorities to fight the pandemic).

The possibility of interrupting temporarily the activity of other industrial units is currently being evaluated, taking into account the reduction in orders from customers due to the scaling back or temporary shutdown of their activities and the possible disruption of the supply of raw materials. The continuation of the other operations could also be conditioned by additional measures imposed by governments with the aim of mitigating the Covid19 pandemic.

Due to the uncertainty, not only on the Covid-19 pandemic duration period but also on its impact in the global economy, Sonae Indústria cannot estimate the impact on the company’s results, but it envisages that it will be important.

Sonae Indústria will take all possible actions, within the limitations imposed by this pandemic crisis, to mitigate the effects of any temporary shutdowns and also to restart any temporarily closed down operations as soon as the conditions allow.