CPH Group raises profit forecast for the financial year 2022
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In view of strong order volumes and higher sales prices, the CPH Group expects to report an EBIT of around CHF 50 million for the first half of 2022, and has also raised its profit forecast for the full financial year.
The CPH Group has been able to largely pass on the higher costs of its raw materials to its various markets in all business segments. As a result, net sales have been increased in all three business divisions, and the Group expects to report total net sales of around CHF 360 million in its 2022 first-half results.
The greatest net sales growth has been in the Paper Division, which is seeing a combination of strong product demand and more limited supply. Contributors to the latter have included a months-long strike at one of Perlen Papier’s competitors and a reduction in European paper making capacities: one competitor has announced the sale of four of its five European paper factories. Following its negative prior-year earnings result, the Paper Division is expected to post an EBIT of more than CHF 30 million for the 2022 first-half period. The improvement is partly due to lower depreciation needs following the impairment to the division’s assets at the end of 2021. The Packaging Division has also improved its EBIT compared to the previous year and is on track to record a double-digit-million EBIT result for the first half of 2022. And with the Chemistry Division also reporting favourable business trends, group EBIT for the period is expected to amount to around CHF 50 million. Excluding extraordinary factors that may still arise, the net group first-half result is likely to be of similar dimensions.
“For the remainder of this business year, though, visibility is substantially limited,” says Peter Schildknecht, CEO of the CPH Group. “Developments in the Ukraine conflict, China’s pandemic response, the prices and the availabilities of key raw materials, transport capacities and thus future overall economic trends are almost impossible to predict. But should the general environment not take a turn for the worse, we expect to achieve an EBIT and a net result for 2022 that are both in the high double-digit millions.”
CPH’s detailed 2022 first-half results will be published on 21 July 2022.
