BackANNUAL REPORT 2016: IMPROVED EBITDA AND STRONG CASH FLOWS ON THE BASE OF FLAT NET SALES
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S announces its result for the fourth quarter and full year 2016.
Organic growth in adjusted net sales and EBITDA delivered in accordance with our guidance published on 3 November 2016.
Highlights 2016:
- Net sales increased by 0.2% to DKK 6,746 million – organic growth of 0.4%
- Reported EBITDA increased by 2.6% to DKK 1,279 million - organic growth in EBITDA of 4.0%
- Profitability improvement leading to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.4% (20.5%)
- Net profit increased by 2.1% to DKK 681 million
- Free cash flow increased by 7.8% to DKK 1,139 million
- The Board of Directors proposes an ordinary dividend of DKK 5.50 per share, an increase of 10%. The Board of Directors will continue to evaluate distribution of possible excess cash in relation to the third quarter announcement in November 2017.
CEO Niels Frederiksen comments:
“2016 was a year of solid performance. We improved our EBITDA and had a strong free cash flow on the base of flat net sales. The performance reflects our plans and efforts. We continue to grow our handmade cigars business and see further opportunities to outperform total markets in Americas that now represents close to half of our business.”
“In addition, we have accelerated and extended our cost optimisation and efficiency programmes to a total of approx. DKK 200 million. Our working capital programme continued to deliver ahead of plan and we now expect to reach our DKK 500 million target by the end of this year, one year ahead of plan.”
FINANCIAL GUIDANCE FOR 2016
For 2017, we expect flat organic net sales and an organic growth of 1-3% in EBITDA.
The annual report for 2016 is available for download here.
A company announcement regarding the full year numbers can be found here.
For further information, please contact:
For media enquiries:
Kaspar Bach Habersaat, Director of Group Communications, phone: +45 7220 7152
orkaspar.bach@st-group.com.
For investor enquiries:
Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations, phone: +45 7220 7126 ortorben.sand@st-group.com.
ABOUT SCANDINAVIAN TOBACCO GROUP
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S with its subsidiaries (the "Group") is a world leading producer of cigars and traditional pipe tobacco. The Group also produces fine-cut tobacco and sells tobacco-related accessories. The Group produces and sells 3 billion cigars and 5,000 tonnes of pipe and fine-cut tobacco annually. Scandinavian Tobacco Group believes it is the only company globally with a core strategic focus on production and distribution in all of these tobacco categories.
Scandinavian Tobacco Group holds market-leading positions in the machine-made cigar market in Europe, the handmade cigar market in the US, the online and catalogue retail sales of cigars in the US, the traditional pipe tobacco market globally and in selected fine-cut tobacco markets.
Scandinavian Tobacco Group has a diversified portfolio of more than 200 brands providing a complementary range of established global brands and local champions. In the cigar segment, the brand portfolio comprises Café Crème, La Paz, Macanudo, CAO, Partagas (US) and Cohiba (US). Pipe tobacco brands include Captain Black, Erinmore, Borkum Riff and W.Ø. Larsen, while leading fine-cut tobacco brands include Bugler, Break, Escort, Bali Shag and Tiedemanns.
As at 31 December 2016, the Group employed 7,600 people in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US.
For more information please visit www.st-group.com. Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S Sydmarken 42 DK-2860 Søborg Denmark
CVR 31 08 01 85
