Mortsel (Belgium) - Agfa-Gevaert today announced its full year 2016 results.  

"As expected, we have met our main objective for 2016: we brought our recurring EBITDA margin above 10% of revenue. Furthermore, our strong focus on cash flow generation enabled us to turn our net debt position into a net cash position. These two achievements will now allow us to shift our focus to the top line evolution of our businesses. As we did when we started to focus on the improvement of our gross profit margin a few years ago, we have initiated several top line projects. With these projects, we will aim at limiting the decline of our traditional businesses and at boosting the success of our growth engines. In that respect, the continuous success of our HealthCare IT business acts as an example for our other growth businesses," said Christian Reinaudo, President and CEO of the Agfa-Gevaert Group.

Agfa-Gevaert Group - full year 2016

(*) before restructuring and non-recurring items 

The Agfa-Gevaert Group's revenue decreased by 4.1% (3.5% excluding currency effects) to 2,537 million Euro. The Group's revenue trend started to improve towards the end of the year. In the Agfa HealthCare business group, the HealthCare IT growth engines performed strongly. Although Agfa Graphics continued to face strong competitive pressure in the offset market and market softness in certain emerging countries, the business group's revenue decrease started to slow down in the last quarter of the year. 

Due to targeted efficiency measures and positive raw material effects in the Agfa Graphics business group, the Group improved its gross profit margin by almost two percentage points to 33.8% of revenue. That is the highest level since 2010.   

As a percentage of revenue, Selling and General Administration expenses amounted to 20.1%.

R&D expenses amounted to 141 million Euro, or 5.6% of revenue. 

Recurring EBITDA (the sum of Graphics, HealthCare, Specialty Products and the unallocated portion) improved from 9.1% of revenue in 2015 to 10.4%. Recurring EBIT improved from 6.8% of revenue to 8.2%. 

Restructuring and non-recurring items resulted in an expense of 42 million Euro, versus an expense of 19 million Euro in 2015. The costs mainly related to the intended closure of the printing plate factory in Vallese, Italy; the decision to exit the contrast media market; and a number of sundry settlements. All these costs were booked in the fourth quarter. About half of them are cash costs. 

The net finance costs amounted to 51 million Euro, versus 74 million Euro in 2015. 

Total tax expenses were 35 million Euro, compared to 16 million Euro in the previous year. Tax cash outflows amounted to 20 million Euro.

As a result of the elements mentioned above, the Agfa-Gevaert Group posted a solid net profit of 80 million Euro.

Financial position and cash flow

• At the end of 2016, total assets were 2,352 million Euro, compared to 2,402 million Euro at the end of 2015.
• Inventories amounted to 483 million Euro (104 days), versus 512 million Euro (102 days) in 2015. Trade receivables (minus deferred revenue and advanced payments from customers) amounted to 364 million Euro (49 days), versus 374 million Euro (50 days) in 2015, and trade payables were 225 million Euro (48 days), versus 206 million Euro (41 days). 
• The net financial debt position was turned into a net cash position of 18 million Euro. At the end of 2015, net financial debt amounted to 58 million Euro. 
• Net cash from operating activities amounted to 142 million Euro. 
• Regarding the pension status, an annuity buy-out was realized in 2016 in the US. Liabilities amounting to 140 million Euro have been settled through payment of a single premium of 143 million Euro from the plan assets, resulting in a settlement loss of 3 million Euro.