Milan, 14 May 2004 – The Italmobiliare S.p.A. Board of Directors today examined and approved the consolidated quarterly report at 31 March 2004. Owing to the seasonal nature of the Group’s core industrial business, cement, and the accounting policy adopted for dividends of companies not consolidated on a line-by-line basis, the results of the first quarter are only partially indicative of full-year trends.
For the first three months of 2004, the Italmobiliare Group posted net income before minority interest of 47.5 million euro (+75.1% on 27.1 million euro in the first quarter of 2003) and Group net income of 12.7 million euro, an increase of 2 million euro (+18.7%) from the year-earlier first quarter. The result reflected significant industrial earnings growth at the Italcementi group, a slight slowdown in the contribution of the Sirap Gema group and a lower contribution from the wholly owned financial subsidiaries.
For the three months to 31 March, the Group reported consolidated net sales of 1,037.7 million euro, an increase of 6.6% from first quarter 2003. This was achieved largely through higher sales volumes (+7.9%) and changes in the consolidation area (+0.9%), set against a negative foreign exchange for certain currencies, which had an impact of 2.2%.
Gross operating profit of 197.2 million euro and operating income of 99.6 million (after amortization, depreciation and other devaluations for 97.6 million euro, in line with the year-earlier figure) improved by 4.9% and 10.6 % respectively.
Group net debt amounted to 1,566.3 million euro at 31 March 2004, a reduction of 39.9 million euro from 31 December 2003. The net debt (including floating rate subordinated securities) to shareholders’ equity ratio stood at 43.3% at the end of the first quarter, compared with 45.6% at the end of 2003. Italmobiliare S.p.A. and its wholly owned financial subsidiaries had a positive net financial position of 196.6 million euro at 31 March (198.8 million at the end of 2003).
At the end of March, Italmobiliare S.p.A. had unrealized capital gains on listed securities of approximately 988 million euro, computed on the basis of average stock prices on the Milan stock exchange in the previous six months (approximately 1,004 million euro at 31 December 2003).
Moving to an analysis of first-quarter results for the main business lines, as announced on 4 May the Italcementi group posted net sales of 1,004.5 million euro, gross operating profit of 194.7 million euro and operating income of 99.7 million euro. Net income before minority interest and group net income made significant improvements, reaching 46.3 million euro (22.2 million in first quarter 2003) and 31.3 million euro (15.8 million) respectively.
The Sirap Gema group – which is active in the food packaging and thermal insulation business – posted net sales of 34.1 million euro and net income of 1.7 million euro for the first three months of 2004, compared with 25.9 million euro and 1.8 million euro respectively in the 2003 first quarter. First quarter 2004 was the first period to include the companies in the Petruzalek group acquired in December 2003, which were consolidated on a line-by-line basis.
The main directly owned financial companies felt the effects of lower interest rates in the first quarter of 2004 compared with the year-earlier period, and continuing volatility on the equity markets. Against this background, Italmobiliare International Finance Ltd. posted net income of 4.2 million euro (5.3 million euro in first quarter 2003), while Société de Partecipation Financière Italmobiliare S.A. reported a loss of 2.4 million euro (-1.8 million in the first quarter of 2003) after downward adjustment of its investments in several listed companies to reflect stock market prices. After provisions for liabilities relating to its subsidiary Finter Bank France, the Fincomind group closed the first three months of 2004 with a loss of 0.4 millon Swiss francs, compared with net income of 0.3 million Swiss francs in the year-earlier first quarter.
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