Metso's Interim Review January 1 - March 31, 2018

Metso's Interim Review January 1 - March 31, 2018
Metso Corporation, Stock Exchange Release, April 25, 2018 at 09:00 a.m. EEST


This is a summary of Metso's January 1 - March 31, 2018 Interim Review. The complete report is attached to this release and is also available at www.metso.com/latestreports.

Figures in brackets refer to the corresponding period in 2017, unless otherwise stated.

First quarter 2018 in brief

• Market activity continued at a healthy level
• Orders received increased 17%, or 27% in constant currencies, and totaled EUR 859 million (733 million)
• Services orders increased 9%, or 18% in constant currencies, and totaled EUR 490 million (451 million)
• Sales increased 10%, or 19% in constant currencies, to EUR 714 million (647 million)
• Services sales increased 10%, or 19% in constant currencies, and totaled EUR 422 million
  (383 million)
• Adjusted EBITA was EUR 85 million, or 11.9% of sales (66 million, or 10.2%)
• Operating profit (EBIT) totaled EUR 80 million, or 11.3% of sales (59 million, or 9.2%)
• Earnings per share were EUR 0.33 (0.23)
• Free cash flow was EUR 2 million (39 million)

Market outlook
 
The outlook represents expected sequential market development with a rolling six-month view. Our market conditions are expected to develop as follows:

• Growth in demand to remain stable for Minerals equipment and services.
• Growth in demand to remain stable for Flow Control equipment and services.

             

Interim President and CEO Eeva Sipilä:

We were pleased to see positive development on several fronts during the first quarter. All our businesses reported strong growth in orders, which resulted in a 17% increase in total orders received compared to the first quarter last year. This growth was supported by the continued healthy market activity in all our customer industries. The strong order growth was also partly attributable to timing, as some of the orders expected in the previous quarter were delayed to the first quarter.

Sales growth and faster than expected progress in improving earlier internal issues had a positive impact on our profitability. We have been working intensively on the internal operational issues that affected our performance in late 2017 and I am encouraged by the development so far. Nevertheless, the work continues, as there are still several areas where we can further improve our operational excellence.

We started the year with no interruption in the implementation of our profitable growth strategy. In March, we announced an expansion investment at our Indian plant. The investment will increase our production capacity to better meet the growing demand for aggregates products in India and other markets. After the reporting period, we announced two acquisitions: one in our valves business in India and the other in our aggregates business in Sweden. These acquisitions represent complementary additions to our offering and will strengthen our presence in these markets. Executing our strategy is our key focus area for the remainder of the year.  

Key figures

EUR million	Q1/2018			Q1/2017	Change %	2017
Orders received		859		733	17	2,982
Orders received by the services business		490		451	9	1,717
% of orders received		57		62		58
Order backlog at the end of the period		1,553		1,396	11	1,439
Sales		714		647	10	2,699
Sales of the services business		422		383	10	1,595
% of sales		59		59		59
Earnings before interest, tax and amortization (EBITA), adjusted		85		66	28	244
% of sales		11.9		10.2		9.0
Operating profit (EBIT)		80		59	36	218
% of sales		11.3		9.2		8.1
Earnings per share, EUR		0.33		0.23	43	0.68
Free cash flow		2		39	-95	158
Return on capital employed (ROCE) before taxes, annualized, %		15.2		11.1		10.3
Equity-to-assets ratio at the end of the period, %		40.9		43.7		44.5
Net gearing at the end of the period, %		2.2		-4.7		1.8
Personnel at the end of the period		12,356		11,453	8	12,037

Webcast and conference call

Metso's Interim President and CEO Eeva Sipilä will present the financial results in a webcast and a conference call for analysts and investors, held in English, today at 13:00 EEST. Webcast is viewable at www.metso.com/latestreports.

Conference call participants are requested to dial in five minutes before the event begins on:
United States: +1 323 794 2095
other countries: +44 330 336 9104

The confirmation code is 755916. A recording and a transcript will be available at www.metso.com/latestreports after the event has finished.

For further information, please contact:
Eeva Sipilä, Interim President and CEO & CFO, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3010
Juha Rouhiainen, VP, Investor Relations, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3253                 
                                  
Metso Corporation
Eeva Sipilä
CFO

Juha Rouhiainen
VP, Investor Relations

Distribution:
Nasdaq Helsinki
Media
www.metso.com

Metso is a world-leading industrial company offering equipment and services for the sustainable processing and flow of natural resources in the mining, aggregates, recycling and process industries. With our unique knowledge and innovative solutions, we help our customers improve their operational efficiency, reduce risks and increase profitability.

Metso is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki in Finland and had sales of about EUR 2.7 billion in 2017. Metso employs over 12,000 people in more than 50 countries.

www.metso.com,  www.twitter.com/metsogroup