Bekaert: Third quarter trading update 2020
20 Novembre 2020 - 07:32AM
Bekaert: Third quarter trading update 2020
Bekaert reports progressive rebound
Sales, trends and actions
Despite a continued high level of uncertainty, the third quarter
marked a turning point in most markets. Bekaert’s third quarter
consolidated sales were up +24% from the weak second quarter of
2020 and sales volumes were just -2% below the volumes of the same
quarter last year. Consolidated sales for the first nine months of
2020 were well below the same period last year (-14% at constant
exchange rates) due to the heavy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in
the first half of 2020.
The external developments in the three-month period
July-September 2020 were:
- A significant demand rebound in tire markets
- The positive sales evolution in various markets in Latin
America, China, India, and EMEA
- Strong adverse currency movements
Bekaert’s actions in the third quarter focused on:
- Continued reinforcement of protective measures to limit the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and safety of our
employees and their families
- Agile supply chain management across the value chain, ensuring
supply continuity to customers
- Further improving the product and business mix, in line with
our strategy to upgrade the business portfolio
- Continued tight control on working capital and capital
expenditure to further deleverage debt
- Further mitigating and structural measures to improve the
financial performance of the Group
- Post-balance sheet date: the successful issue of a 7-year
€ 200 million retail bond
Outlook
The structural improvement actions implemented since the end of
2019 and our agile response to Covid-19 have demonstrated their
effectiveness in strengthening Bekaert’s resilience.
While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to create a high level of
uncertainty, the recovery of demand in most of our markets and the
lasting benefits from structural improvement actions will enable us
to make a step-up in performance in the second half of 2020.
Despite lower overall sales than last year, we expect the
underlying EBIT for the full year 2020 to be close to 2019,
resulting in an improved underlying EBIT margin.
Driven by strong cash generation and disciplined working capital
and debt management, we have brought down the net debt leverage
below 2 at the end of the third quarter and will maintain this net
debt on underlying EBITDA level as a target - ahead of plan - for
the close of 2020.
- p201120E - Trading update Q3 2020
Grafico Azioni NV Bekaert (EU:BEKB)
Storico
Da Feb 2024 a Mar 2024
Grafico Azioni NV Bekaert (EU:BEKB)
Storico
Da Mar 2023 a Mar 2024