GERMANY - At its recent Annual General Meeting in Munich, Surteco SE - one of the world's leading manufacturers of decorative surface materials - presented the company's growth trajectory for the business year 2017. The projection envisages a further slight improvement in sales for this year by comparison with the previous year's figure of EUR 640 million, in spite of sustained difficult framework conditions. 

Although costs of raw materials have undergone a massive increase in some areas, the efficiency enhancement measures from previous years and the successful relocation and integration of decorative printing activities are projected to lead to an improvement in earnings before financial result and income tax (EBIT) to between EUR 42 and 46 million after around EUR 41 million in 2016.

After the end of the 1st quarter, Surteco still has a very healthy balance sheet structure and is generating stable cash flows. On 31 March 2017, the equity ratio was therefore 51 % and the level of debt (ratio of net financial debt to equity) was 36 %. In the first quarter of the year, Surteco succeeded in generating free cash flow of nearly EUR 11 million.

At the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Management also presented details of the acquisition of the Probos group (Portugal). The purchase contract was signed shortly before the Annual General Meeting and it is scheduled for closure in the coming weeks. Surteco intends to use this takeover to expand its product expertise in the area of plastic edgebandings and extend its geographical market presence in South and Central America.