EANS-News: Oxea GmbH / Oxea reports record earnings for FY 2011 and solid Q4 performance

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annual report/quarterly report

Luxembourg (euro adhoc) - Highlights FY 2011: * Net sales were
EUR1,479 million versus EUR1,365 million in the prior year period *
Adjusted EBITDA was EUR206 million versus EUR178 million in the prior
year period * Cash generated by operating activities was EUR193
million versus EUR136 million in the prior year period * Operating
Profit was EUR180 million versus EUR141 million* in the prior year
period * Net Income was EUR77 million versus EUR71 million* in the
prior period

Oxea, a leading global supplier of Oxo intermediates and Oxo
Derivatives, today announced record results for FY 2011. Net sales of
EUR1,479 million were up by 8% and Adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR206
million reflecting an increase of 16% from the corresponding period
of the prior year. Strong cash generation during the year
significantly improved Oxea's financial profile and further reduced
net debt to ca. 1.7x Adjusted EBITDA from 2.2x in FY 2010.

After a very strong first half year of 2011 with record performance
in both revenues and EBITDA and a robust third quarter, Oxea´s fourth
quarter performance was affected by the continued softening of the
world economy and destocking activities along the value chain in the
entire industry. In a challenging macroeconomic environment, Oxea´s
fourth quarter revenues of EUR328 million decreased moderately by
6.5% compared to a strong Q4 2010. Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 was EUR36
million compared to EUR45 million in the prior year period. Despite
lower fourth quarter operating results compared to the prior year
period, Oxea generated strong cash flows mainly due to a significant
improvement of Trade Working Capital leading to a cash balance of
EUR125 million at the end of the year compared to EUR24 million at
the end of September 2011.

In EUR million Three months ended Twelve months ended
Unaudited December 31 December 31
2011 2010 2011 2010
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Net Sales 328.4 351.2 1,479.3 1,365.3
Gross Profit 33.8 44.4 205.4 190.0
SG&A (10.0) (11.0) (37.6) (46.9)
R&D (1.8) (1.3) (6.4) (5.5)
Other operating
income 9.7 4.0 18.1 43.3
Operating Profit 31.7 36.1 179.5 180.9
Net Income 8.7 24.3 77.0 111.1
Adjusted EBITDA 35.5 44.9 206.2 177.6

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*adjusted for a net gain of EUR40 million from divesture in 2010

Sales Sales for the three months ended December 31, 2011 were
EUR328.4 million, a decrease of 6.5% compared with the corresponding
period of the prior year. Overall, volumes were 6.4% lower than in
the corresponding period of the prior year mainly driven by
destocking activities along the value chain in the entire industry
and production outages. Oxo Intermediates volumes and Oxo Derivatives
were 7.1% and 4.2% lower respectively than the corresponding period
of the prior year. Of our revenues for the three months ended
December 31, 2011, EUR141 million resulted from sales in Europe,
EUR109 million in North America and EUR78 million in the rest of the
world compared to EUR183 million, EUR103 million and EUR65 million
respectively in the prior year period.

Gross profit Gross profit for the three months ended December 31,
2011 amounted to EUR33.8 million compared with EUR44.4 million in the
corresponding period of the prior year. This development is mainly
due to lower volumes such that gross profit amounted to 10.3% of
sales compared with 12.6% in the corresponding period of the prior
year.

Selling, general & administration expense (SG&A) SG&A expense for the
three months ended December 31, 2011 decreased to EUR10.0 million
compared with EUR11.0 million in the corresponding period of the
prior year. The decrease is primarily attributable to higher
consulting fees in relation to projects and higher personnel costs
including accruals for employee bonuses in the fourth quarter of
2010.

Other operating income/(expense) * Net other operating income for the
three months ended December 31, 2011 amounted to EUR9.7million
compared with a net other operating income of EUR4.0 million in the
corresponding period of the prior year. The increase is primarily
attributable to insurance gains.

Operating result Operating result for the three months ended December
31, 2011 was EUR31.7 million compared with EUR36.1 million in the
corresponding period of the prior year period primarily as a result
of lower revenues partly offset by lower SG&A expense and higher
other operating income.

Financial result * Net financial expense increased to EUR15.0 million
compared with EUR10.9 million in the corresponding period of the
prior year primarily as a result of exchange rate losses in 2011
compared to exchange rate gains in 2010.

*Prior year numbers have been adjusted to reflect the
reclassification of net foreign exchange gains and losses from other
operating income to financial result. As a result, other operating
income for the quarter ended December, 2010 has been reduced by
EUR1.5 million and net financial expense has been decreased by EUR1.5
million.

Net income Net income was EUR8.7 million compared with EUR24.3
million in the corresponding period of the prior year primarily
attributable to a lower operating result as mentioned above, higher
net financial expense and higher income taxes.

Adjusted EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA at EUR35.5 million compared with
EUR44.9 million in the corresponding period of the prior year was
driven by lower gross profit partly offset by lower operating
expenses.

Cash Flow The company continued to generate positive free cash flow
and during 2011 Oxea generated EUR193.3 million in cash from
operating activities compared with EUR135.6 million in the
corresponding period of the prior year. Increased earnings from
operating activities and higher inflows from working capital were
partly offset by higher income tax payments.

Cash used in investing activities was EUR36.2 million compared with
an inflow of EUR50.2 million driven by proceeds from divesture in the
amount of EUR79.0 million in the corresponding period of the prior
year.

Cash used in financing activities in the amount of EUR130.7 million
was mainly driven by the optional redemption of 5% of the Senior
Secured Notes and a payment to shareholders. In the corresponding
period of the prior year cash used in financing activities was
EUR178.2 million whereby proceeds of EUR505.7 million from the bond
issue in July 2010 were used to repay existing bank debt and
shareholder loans.

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, flavorings 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.

Forward looking statements * This document 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 document 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 document 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.

Use of non IFRS financial information: * EBITDA is defined as net
income for the year before financial result, income taxes,
depreciation and amortization. EBITDA, is a supplemental measure of
our performance and liquidity that is not required by or presented in
accordance with IFRS. EBITDA is not a measurement 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
facilitates 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
because we believe it is frequently used by securities analysts,
investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of similar
issuers, the majority of which present EBITDA when reporting their
results. Finally, we present EBITDA as a measure of our ability to
service our debt. * Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA adjusted to
remove the effects of certain non-cash and non-recurring expenses and
charges. Adjusted EBITDA is a supplemental measure of our performance
and liquidity that is not required by or presented in accordance with
IFRS. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement 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 Adjusted EBITDA
facilitates operating performance comparisons from period to period
and company to company by eliminating certain non-recurring expenses
and charges. We also present Adjusted EBITDA because we believe it is
frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other
interested parties in the evaluation of similar issuers. Finally, we
present Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of our ability to service our
debt.

Further inquiry note:
Bernhard Spetsmann
Managing Director (Finance, IT)
bernhard.spetsmann@oxea-chemicals.com

Birgit Reichel
Communications/PR
birgit.reichel@oxea-chemicals.com

end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: Oxea GmbH
Otto-Roelen-Straße 3
D-46147 Oberhausen
phone: +49(0)208 693 3112
FAX: +49(0)208 693 3101
mail: birgit.reichel@oxea-chemicals.com
WWW: http://www.oxea-chemicals.com
sector: Chemicals
ISIN: XS0523636594
indexes:
stockmarkets: Open Market: Frankfurt
language: English