Milan, 13 November 2000 – The Board of Directors of Italmobiliare S.p.A. met today to examine and approve the report on consolidated operations for the third quarter and first nine months of financial 2000.
In the first nine months, the positive overall performance of the group’s industrial and financial businesses, combined with capital gains, generated income before taxes of 1,045 billion lire/540 million euro, an improvement compared with the 1999 full-year figure of 884 billion lire/456 million euro.
For the first nine months of 2000, the group reported net sales of 5,781 billion lire/2,986 million euro (up 11%), gross operating profit of 1,398 billion lire/722 million euro (up 8%) and operating income of 861 billion lire/445 million euro (up 9.2%).
For the third quarter, Italmobiliare’s consolidated net sales were 1,993 billion lire/1,029 million euro, an increase of 7.8% compared with the year-earlier period.
Third-quarter growth rate (+9.4%) in the building materials’ sector was slower than in the first half (+15.1%), which benefited from particularly favorable weather conditions in the first quarter (+23.2%).
Gross operating profit was 545 billion lire/281 million euro (up 5.9%) and operating income was 368 billion lire/190 million euro (up 7.2%).
Main transactions by the parent company and the financial subsidiaries
During the third quarter, Italmobiliare sold its equity investment in Falck to Compart under the terms of an agreement between the Falck voting trust and Compart, which also launched a friendly public tender offer for one hundred per cent of Falck and Sondel shares. The sale generated proceeds of approximately 50 billion lire/26 million euro, and a capital gain of approximately 40 billion lire/21 million euro. Purchases of Italcementi shares continued, for an amount totalling 41 billion lire/21 million euro, raising the Italcementi stake to 55.14% of voting shares as of 30 September 2000. Italmobiliare also acquired a 0.62% stake in Mediobanca for an outlay of 66 billion lire/34 million euro, bringing the group’s equity investment in the bank to approximately 3%. The subsidiary Société de Participation Financière Italmobiliare sold Poligrafici Editoriale shares on the market for the equivalent of 17 billion lire/9 million euro, with a capital gain of 14 billion lire/7 million euro.
Attached the full press release