The company is committed to safeguarding the health and safety of its employees and to ensuring business continuity and customer service.
30 July 2020_Cementos Molins today released its results of the first half of 2020, which have very much been influenced by the impact of COVID-19.
Since the spread of COVID-19, Cementos Molins implemented plans in all its operations to safeguard the health and safety of its employees and to ensure the continuity in customer service. The crisis has had a significant impact on operations in all the industrial facilities, which were either temporarily stopped or experienced a reduced activity, to varying degree depending on the country.
In order to mitigate the economic and financial impact, Cementos Molins adopted a series of measures in March, consisting on the investments limitation only to the essentials, a significant savings on operating costs and general expenses, an optimization of working capital in line with activity level, and keeping its financial strength focused on cash generation and financing lines availability.
COVID-19 had a limited effect on the first quarter results, affecting only the second half of March. However, it had a severe knock on the second quarter with a strong impact in April and a gradual recovery in May and June.
Cementos Molins achieved revenues of 341 million euros, which represents a 16% decrease in comparison with the same period last year. Markets decline has implied a sharp reduction of cement and ready-mix concrete operations.
EBITDA reached 83 million euros, 16% below same period last year, with a relevant impact of currencies (-1% with constant currencies). The positive effect of costs savings and price management partially offset the lower volume of sales due to the market environment.
Net profit stood at 32 million euros, a decrease of 35% in comparison to the first half of the previous year (-13% in comparable terms). Improvement in the operating contribution of Mexico and South America was negatively affected by depreciation of their currencies and the negative effect of hyperinflation in Argentina.
Net financial debt at June 30th 2020 decreased to 127 million euros, which is a 30% reduction in comparison with December 31st 2019 and 29% in comparison with June 30th 2019. The Net Financial Debt/EBITDA ratio continued to decline to 0.7.
Effects on the year
The Cementos Molins business model proved its resilience to the crisis during the first half of the year. However, uncertainty continues due to the coronavirus spread and its negative impact on global markets. Accordingly, Cementos Molins estimates a further market shrinking in annual terms but a further gradual recovery during the second half of 2020 and, particularly, during 2021, varying significantly by country. Consequently, Cementos Molins forecasts a lower EBITDA and net profit in 2020 than in 2019 due to the significant impact of the crisis.
Julio Rodríguez, CEO of Cementos Molins, considers that both the operations resilience during the crisis and employees’ high-level commitment in adverse circumstances were crucial in the first half of 2020. “The worldwide spread of the pandemic has presented a great challenge over the last four months. This is being overcome thanks to our great team. I am confident that this strength, together with our operations resilience, will enable us to turn the current uncertainty into opportunities and emerge even stronger from this crisis.”
In accordance with the guidelines of the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on Alternative Performance Measures (APM), which are of obligatory application for regulated information, the information and breakdowns relative to the APM used in this Press Release are included in the presentation of “2020 First Quarter Results”, issued by the Company to the Spanish National Securities Commission.
About Cementos Molins Cementos Molins has been creating products and developing innovative, sustainable solutions for the construction sector for over 90 years. This enables us to contribute towards the development of society and people's quality of life. We currently operate in Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Tunisia, Bangladesh and India. Our integrated model includes the aggregate, clinker, cement, concrete, mortar, precast solutions and waste management businesses. Our long history has been possible thanks to our workforce of almost 5,000 employees spread around nine countries and four continents, all sharing the same bloodline: working every day with passion, respect and integrity, in a non-conforming and efficient manner.