Group publishes preliminary, unaudited figures for sales volumes, revenue, result and net debt
HEIDELBERGCEMENT have published preliminary, unaudited figures for sales volumes, revenue, result from current operations before and after depreciation and amortization, as well as net debt for business year 2019.
Cement and clinker sales volumes fell by 3.1% in 2019 to 125.9 million tonnes. Excluding consolidation effects, cement and clinker sales volumes were 1.6% below the previous year.
Aggregates sales volumes were just under the previous year’s level, at 308.3 million tonnes. Excluding consolidation effects, sales volumes fell by 1.2%.
Ready-mixed concrete sales volumes were up by 3.4% in 2019 to 50.7 million cubic metres. Excluding consolidation effects, they rose by 1.1%.
The development of sales volumes resulted mainly from the Group’s strategy of focusing more on necessary price increases than on sales volumes, which led to a decline in sales volumes in the fourth quarter of 2019, in particular. Sales volumes for the whole year 2019 were, therefore, slightly below expectations.
Group revenue rose by 4.3% to €18,851 million compared with the previous year. Like for like, the increase amounted to 2.1%. However, lower revenue in the Group’s trading business – caused especially by the trading of fuels with third parties, which was reduced for risk considerations in the fourth quarter of 2019 – contributed substantially to the revenue development, which was slightly below expectations.
The result from current operations before depreciation and amortization rose by 15.5% to €3,580 million. Like for like, the rise amounted to 2.5%. The result from current operations increased by 8.8% to €2,186 million. Like for like, it rose by 4.7% and was in line with expectations.
Net debt was reduced again significantly in the fourth quarter of 2019. It decreased to €7.1 billion before application of IFRS16 by the end of 2019 and thereby fell markedly below the already downward adjusted forecast from November 2019 of €7.4 billion.
The complete consolidated financial statements of HeidelbergCement, including the outlook, will be published on 19 March 2020.
