HeidelbergCement partially revise outlook for 2018

Company reassess current business year following unexpected energy cost inflation

BASED on preliminary numbers for the third quarter of 2018, HeidelbergCement have made a new assessment of the current business year.

Whilst sales volumes and revenue of the first nine months of 2018 developed within expectations and the guidance for the full year remains unchanged, the outlook for 2018 for the result from current operations before depreciation (RCOBD) on a like-for-like basis has been adapted from a mid-to-high single-digit percentage increase to a low-to-mid single-digit percentage decline.

HeidelbergCement say that besides persistent adverse weather conditions in US, the reason for the adjustment is, amongst others, energy cost inflation that significantly exceeded the Group’s expectations and could only partially be compensated by price increases over the course of the year.

Consequently, the company now expects that the ratio of net debt to RCOBD (leverage) at year end will amount to more than the so far expected value of 2.5. Nevertheless, the company assumes that the Group share of profit for the year 2018 will be in line with market expectations.

HeidelbergCement’s final results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2018 will be published on 8 November.