| Company Announcement No.17/2018 |
Copenhagen, 8 November 2018
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S delivers organic net sales growth of 1.7% and negative organic EBITDA growth of 0.3% in Q3 2018 - Full year guidance maintained
Highlights for Q3 2018
- Reported net sales of DKK 1,887 million (DKK 1,721 million) - organic growth 1.7%
- Reported EBITDA of DKK 374 million (DKK 388 million) - negative organic growth 0.3%
- Net profit of DKK 221 million (DKK 224 million)
- Free cash flow of DKK 315 million (DKK 342 million)
Highlights for 9M 2018
- Reported net sales of DKK 4,952 million (DKK 4,773 million) - organic growth 2.1%
- Reported EBITDA of DKK 905 million (DKK 904 million) - organic growth 1.2%
- Net profit of DKK 515 million (DKK 465 million)
- Free cash flow of DKK 63 million (DKK 640 million)
For the third quarter of 2018, Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S delivered net sales of DKK 1,887 million and an adjusted EBITDA of DKK 398 million. The quarter delivered 1.7% organic growth in net sales. Organic growth in EBITDA was negative by 0.3% and was as expected impacted by a strong comparison base. Net profit for the quarter decreased by 1.1% to DKK 221 million while the free cash flow was positive at DKK 315 million.
The handmade cigar category maintained its strong momentum and delivered an organic growth of 7.9% in net sales while the machine-made cigar category showed trend improvement with a negative organic growth of 0.7%. The accessories and contract manufacturing category delivered a positive organic growth of 1.4% and in the pipe tobacco category declining volumes and destocking resulted in a negative organic growth of 12.7%. Fine-cut tobacco reported negative organic growth of 1.3%.
"We are delivering a result in line with our expectations. Our handmade category continues to deliver strong growth and I am obviously particular pleased that Thompson Cigars ahead of time delivers a positive contribution to the category. In Accessories and Contract Manufacturing, we are for the seventh straight quarter able to deliver growth and the category is now our third largest", says CEO of Scandinavian Tobacco Group Niels Frederiksen. "During the quarter we launched Fuelling the Growth, a Group wide transformational program that will make us a stronger and more competitive company better equipped to become the best integrator in the industry. I am excited about the potential of both Scandinavian Tobacco Group and Fuelling the Growth and look forward to continue the development of the company".
The performance in the quarter supports the unchanged 2018 full year guidance.
Conference Call and Webcast
A conference call and webcast will be held on 8 November 2018 at 10:00 AM CET.
Presentation materials will be available online approximately one hour before the webcast on investor.st-group.com.
Dial-in details:
Denmark: +45 35 15 80 49
The UK: +44 (0) 330 336 9128
The US: +1 646 828 8144
Passcode: 3108871
https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/pepyya7v
For further information, please contact:
For investor enquiries: Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations,
phone: +45 5084 7222 or torben.sand@st-group.com
For media enquiries: Simon Mehl Augustesen, Director of Group Communications,
phone: +45 5084 7211 or simon.augustesen@st-group.com
