PIRELLI & C SpA BOARD APPROVES RESULTS FOR 3 MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2012: IMPROVEMENT IN ALL ECONOMIC INDICATORS AND FURTHER GROWTH IN PROFITABILITY
PIRELLI & C. SPA
- REVENUES 1,556.5 MILLION EURO, +11.1% COMPARED WITH 1,400.9 MILLION EURO ON 31 MARCH 2011
- OPERATING RESULT (EBIT) AFTER RESTRUCTURING CHARGES 209.4 MILLIONI EURO (+46.1% COMPARED WITH 143.3 MILLION EURO ON 31 MARCH 2011)
- EBIT MARGIN ON 31 MARCH 2012 AT 13.5% COMPARED WITH 10.2% FOR THE SAME PERIOD IN 2011
- CONSOLIDATED NET PROFIT 125.3 MILLION EURO, AN INCREASE OF 54% COMPARED WITH 81.4 MILLION EURO AT END MARCH 2011
- ATTRIBUTABLE CONSOLIDATED NET PROFIT 122.9 MILLION EURO, AN INCREASE OF 48.4% COMPARED WITH THE PRIOR 82.8 MILLION EURO
- NET FINANCIAL POSITION NEGATIVE 1,305 MILLION EURO, AN INCREASE FROM NEGATIVE 737.1 MILLION EURO AT END DECEMBER 2011
TYRE BUSINESS
- REVENUES 1,542.6 MILLION EURO, +11.4% COMPARED WITH 1,384.5 MILLION EURO ON 31 MARCH 2011
- PREMIUM REVENUES 584.4 MILLION EURO, +29.2% FROM 31 MARCH 2011
- OPERATING RESULT (EBIT) AFTER RESTRUCTURING CHARGES 215.2 MILLION EURO, +41.2% COMPARED WITH 152.4 MILLION EURO ON 31 MARCH 2011
- EBIT MARGIN ON 31 MARCH 2012 GREW TO RECORD LEVEL OF 14% COMPARED WITH 11% IN THE SAME PERIOD OF 2011
2012 TARGETS
• REVENUE TARGET REVISED TO APPROXIMATELY 6.45 BILLION EURO, AN INCREASE OF 14% COMPARED WITH 2011 (PREVIOUS TARGET: ~6.6 BILLION EURO, UP 17%)
• EBIT FORECAST: AT LEAST 800 MILLION EURO, MARGIN ABOVE 12% (PREVIOUS ESTIMATE: MARGIN ABOVE OR EQUAL TO 12%)
• INVESTMENT TARGET LOWERED TO APPROXIMATELY 500 MILLION EURO (PREVIOUS ESTIMATE: APPROXIMATELY 560 MILLION EURO)
• NET FINANCIAL POSITION TARGET CONFIRMED NEGATIVE AT BELOW 1 BILLION EURO BEFORE DIVIDENDS
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ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL RE-DEFINED. INTRODUCES ROLES OF CTO (CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER) AND CCO (CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER) REPORTING TO THE CHAIRMAN AND CEO
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The Board of Directors of Pirelli & C. SpA today reviewed and approved intermediate results for the 3 months ended 31 March 2012.
The continual strengthening of production in rapidly growing economies and the focus on the Premium segment, which as well as being the most profitable segment is also the tyre market’s fastest growing, enabled Pirelli to end the first quarter of 2012 with further improvements in key economic indicators and profitability, notwithstanding the persistent macro-economic slowdown, particularly in Western economies.
Consolidated revenues on 31 March 2012 totaled 1,556.5 million euro, an increase of 11.1% compared with 1,400.9 million euro in first quarter 2011. The consolidated operating result after restructuring charges was 209.4 million euro, with an increase of 46.1% compared with 143.3 million euro in first quarter 2011 and saw the margin on revenues rise by over three percentage points to 13.5% compared with 10.2% in the same period of 2011. The net result was 125.3 million euro, an increase of 54% from 81.4 million euro in first quarter 2011.
The consolidated net financial position was negative 1,305.0 million euro compared with 737.1 million at end 2011 (negative 712.8 million euro on 31 March 2011), reflecting a normal seasonal variation in the business working capital, as well as payment, of 154.5 million euro, for the acquisition of the Russian plants in Kirov and Voronezh.
For the Tyre activities, which represent almost all (99%) group sales, the quarter registered a further increase in sales (+11.4% to 1,542.6 million euro) and a further increase in profitability which reached the record level of 14% compared with 11% in the same period of 2011. In a market context discounting the global economic slowdown, these results were achieved thanks to the continual improvement of the sales mix – increasingly focused on Premium products – and the ability to use the price lever to offset increases in the cost of raw materials, which in the quarter had an impact of approximately 85 million euro, as well as constant improvement in efficiencies, which totaled 26 million euro in the period.
With regard to the Premium segment, in particular, in the first quarter of 2012 revenues grew 29.2% compared with the same period a year earlier in 2011 to 584.4 million euro, and in the Car business represented 52.6% of the total, with an increase of over five percentage points compared with 47.4% in the same period of 2011.
Categories: Corporate Governance Group Institutional Investors Pirelli Reports Sustainability
The Pirelli Technological Centre at Settimo Torinese played a protagonist’s role as part of the celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. Accompanied by the Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera and other members of Pirelli top management, the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, and his wife Clio visited the Group’s most technologically advanced factory, where they were enthusiastically welcomed by employees present for the event. Addressing the blue collar workers, the Head of State declared,“Here, people work for peace; if research has the means, it can produce the answers we are looking for”. The President therefore underlined the technological excellence of the Settimo site. An excellence also reiterated by chairman Tronchetti Provera, who remarked, “The visit of the Head of State has increased the enthusiasm that already exists in this factory, which is the most modern of its kind in the world, with more than 70 patents and advanced technologies”. The visit, in which the leaders of the local institutions and the academic world (the president of the Piedmont Region, Roberto Cota, the president of the Province of Turin, Antonio Saitta, the Mayor of Settimo Torinese, Aldo Corgiat Loia, the prefect of Turin, Alberto Di Pace and the rector of the Turin Polytechnic, Francesco Profumo, concluded with the presentation to President Napolitano of a Tricolour Formula 1 Pirelli tyre, created ad hoc as a memento of an event that will remain part of the history of the Group.