Voestalpine continua a fare relativamente meglio dei competitors: mentre questi infatti hanno chiuso il trimestre gen-mar 2009 con perdite operative importanti, V è ancora riuscita a generare un EBIT in nero, seppure in drammatico calo (quasi 90%) rispetto a quello dell'anno precedente.
Pronostica un azzeramento dell'utile netto nel 2009-2010 e la necessità di attendere "alcuni anni" prima che la produzione di acciaio torni ali livelli del 2007.
UPDATE 2-Voestalpine says profit to vanish in 2009/10
Thu Jun 4, 2009 6:19am EDT
* Expects H1 operating loss, FY operating profit in 2009/10
* Q4 EBIT down 88 pct at 34 mln euros, forecast 53 mln euros
* Dividend halved to 1.05 eur, but more than expected
* Return to 2007 production levels to take several years
(Recasts with net forecast, adds quotes, analyst comment)
By Alexandra Schwarz and Boris Groendahl
VIENNA, June 4 (Reuters) - Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine (
VOES.VI) said on Thursday it expects net profit to vanish in the 2009/10 business year after remaining profitable in its fourth quarter to March, defying the steel sector trend.
The group said it expected to run up a "manageable" operating loss in the first half of the business year to March 2010 as it waits for customers to run down inventories over the summer and for lower raw materials and energy costs to kick in.
A pick-up in the second half, as well as cuts in costs and investments, will help to achieve a full-year operating profit, Voestalpine said in a statement. Its finance chief told journalists he expected full-year net profit "around zero".
"It is difficult to say what the operating result is going to be," CFO Robert Ottel told journalists at a news conference. "As the financial result will be negative, (net profit) will be somewhere around zero." [ID:nWEA5488]
Chief Executive Wolfgang Eder added that he still expected the net profit to be positive.
A Reuters poll of analysts done before the results showed a wide variety of net profit estimates for 2009/10, averaging 181 million euros but ranging from a 58 million euro loss to a 570 million euro profit. [ID:nLS312159]
Voestalpine said earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) slumped 88 percent to 34 million euros ($49 million) in the fiscal fourth quarter to end-March, missing the average forecast of an 81 percent drop given in the Reuters poll.
The result sets it apart from peers like ArcelorMittal (
ISPA.AS), ThyssenKrupp (
TKAG.DE) and Salzgitter (
SZGG.DE) which all reported losses in the same three months of 2009 as the global crisis hit carmakers' and engineering companies' demand.
While also heavily exposed to stricken car and car parts makers, Voestalpine benefits from its less cyclical railway business, the only division which kept earnings near unchanged in the fourth fiscal quarter and raised them in the full year.
It has shed only 1,100 permanent and 1,700 temp staff out of its 41,000 payroll, and introduced short working hours for 11,000 staff. CEO Eder said he did not plan significant additional measures. ArcelorMittal said on Wednesday it may temporarily lay off 12,000 in Spain.
"YEAR OF EXTREMES"
Shares in the group see-sawed, testing positive territory in early trade when Merrill Lynch upgraded peer ThyssenKrupp, but later falling 5 percent to 20.24 euros by 1012 GMT, underperforming the DJ Stoxx Basic Resources index .SXPP.
Some analysts took comfort from the dividend proposal which despite being halved to 1.05 euros per share was ahead of the forecast of 0.78 euros in the poll. This translates into a dividend yield of 4.9 percent, one of the highest among peers.
"When you look at the company's outlook, there is really nothing to be excited about, but coming up with a reasonable dividend might be seen as some sort of qualified outlook," said one analyst who asked not to be identified.
The analyst added that he thought the dividend was too high, given Voestalpine's gearing, which stood at 88 percent by the end of March. "If you're already so indebted, i don't see why you should pay out so much," he said.
Voestalpine said it would take many years to get back to the boom-time production levels of 2007.
"The business year behind us was a year of extremes," Chief Executive Wolfgang Eder said in a statement. "Records of every kind -- record volumes, record revenue, record results, record employment in the first half of the year.
"Then, practically overnight, an economic slump whose pace was faster than anything we had seen before."
The Linz-based company said steel output fell 10 percent in the 2008/09 business year, the first decline in nine years.
"A return to the production levels of 2007 is likely only over a period of several years," Voestalpine said. ($1=.6999 euros) (Editing by Greg Mahlich and David Cowell)
anche se temo che possa salire ancora
