Oxea GmbH / Trading Update: Oxea Reports Solid Operating Performance for the First Two Months of 2012

LUXEMBOURG, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Oxea, a leading global supplier of Oxo Intermediates and Oxo Derivatives, today announced interim trading results for the two month period ending February 29, 2012.

Oxea's operating performance in the first quarter of 2012 improved compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 despite significant raw materials price increases at the beginning of 2012. Based on currently available information our average monthly:

* volume increased by 8.1%;

* revenue increased by 9.5%; and

* average monthly Adjusted EBITDA increased by 19.2%.

This improvement in our operating performance has been driven in part by restocking activities by our customers along the value chain reversing the destocking trend seen in the fourth quarter of 2011.

For the two months ended February 29, 2012 our revenues were EUR239.7 million and our Adjusted EBITDA was EUR28.2 million.  We estimate that our results for the month ending March 31, 2012 should be consistent with January and February 2012 results.

Oxo industry growth continues to be strong, consistent with the broader global chemical industry development.  We estimate that global demand for Oxo chemicals is expected to increase over the period from 2012 to 2015.  For more information on Oxea and the Oxo chemical industry please refer to http://www.oxea-chemicals.com/business/overview.html.

Oxea is a global manufacturer of Oxo Intermediates and Derivatives such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters and amines. These products are sold in the merchant market (where sales are to third party customers) and used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, flavourings and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. In 2011, Oxea generated revenue of about EUR1.5 billion with its 1,365 employees in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Oxea remain opportunistic with alternative uses of our liquidity and may, depending on market conditions and other factors, consider and/or opt to pursue alternative bond and other debt transactions, including refinancings, recapitalizations or other funding options.

Please note:

"Average monthly" as set forth above means the average of the relevant figures for January and February 2012 as compared to the average of such figures for the fourth quarter of 2011.

This press release contains financial information regarding the businesses and assets of OXEA S.à.r.l. (the "Company") and its consolidated subsidiaries (the "Group"). Such financial information has not been audited, reviewed or verified by any independent accounting firm. The inclusion of such financial information in this press release or any related presentation should not be regarded as a representation or warranty by the Company, any of its respective affiliates, advisors or representatives or any other person as to the accuracy or completeness of such information's portrayal of the financial condition or results of operations by the Group.

This press release and related presentations (including on our website) may contain information, data and predictions about our markets and our competitive position. While we believe this data to be reliable, it has not been independently verified, and we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of such information set forth in this document. Additionally, industry publications and reports from which such information, data or predictions may be obtained generally state that the information contained therein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but that the accuracy and completeness of such information is not guaranteed and in some instances state that they do not assume liability for such information. We cannot therefore assure you of the accuracy and completeness of such information and we have not independently verified such information. In addition, we have made statements in this document regarding our industry and position in the industry based on our experience and our own investigation of market conditions. We cannot assure you that the assumptions underlying these statements are accurate or correctly reflect the state and development of, or our position in, the industry, and none of our internal surveys or information has been verified by any independent sources.

Certain statements in this document are forward-looking. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These factors include, among others: the cyclical and highly variable nature of our business and its sensitivity to changes in supply and demand; adverse and uncertain global economic conditions; the highly variable nature of raw materials costs and any loss of key suppliers or supply shortages or disruptions; the competitive nature of our industry; the ability to comply with current or future laws and regulations relating to environmental, health and safety matters as well as the safety of our products, related costs of maintaining compliance and addressing liabilities as well as risks relating to compliance with antitrust and tax laws; our reliance on a limited number of suppliers for certain of our key raw materials; operational risks, including the risk of environmental contamination and potential product liability claims; operational interruptions at our facilities due to events that are outside of our control such as severe weather conditions, unscheduled downtimes, terrorist attacks, natural disasters or other events that may interrupt or damage our operations or the impact of scheduled outages on our results of operations; the risk that our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover all risks; risks relating to the global nature of our operations, including, among others, fluctuations in exchange rates; the loss of major customers or key customers for certain of our products; the loss of key personnel; risks relating to acquisitions and dispositions, including any impairment risks with respect to historical acquisitions, our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, and unexpected liabilities relating to such acquisitions or contingent liabilities in connection with such dispositions; the requirement to make further contributions to our pension schemes; the failure to protect our intellectual property rights; limitations on our ability to adjust the quality of certain products that we manufacture; and potential conflicts of interests with our principal shareholder.

These and other factors could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Forward-looking statements contained in this document regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. New risks can emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such risks, nor can we assess the impact of all such risks on our business or the extent to which any risks, or combination of risks and other factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Neither the Company nor the Group undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document.

EBITDA is defined as net income for the year before financial result, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA adjusted to remove the effects of certain non-cash and non-recurring expenses and charges. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are supplemental measures of our performance and liquidity that are not required by or presented in accordance with IFRS. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of our financial performance or liquidity under IFRS and should not be considered as an alternative to profit for the period presented, results from operating activities or any other performance measures derived in accordance with IFRS or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. We believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period and company to company by eliminating potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense), tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of change in effective tax rates or net operating losses) and the age and book value and amortization of tangible and intangible assets (which have an effect on related depreciation expense). We also present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe it these are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of similar issuers, the majority of which present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA when reporting their results. Finally, we present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as measures of our ability to service our debt.

Further inquiry note: Bernhard Spetsmann
Managing Director (Finance, IT)
[email protected]
Birgit Reichel
Communications/PR
[email protected]

Company: Oxea GmbH, Otto-Roelen-Stra√üe 3, D-46147, Oberhausen
phone: +49(0)208-693-3112
FAX: +49(0)208-693-3101
mail: [email protected]
WWW: http://www.oxea-chemicals.com
sector: Chemicals
ISIN: XS0523636594
indexes:    
stockmarkets: Open Market: Frankfurt

SOURCE Oxea GmbH