EANS-News: Oxea GmbH / Oxea reports 25% earnings increase compared to previous quarter

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quarterly report

Luxembourg (euro adhoc) - Highlights Q1 2012: * Net sales were EUR372
million versus EUR328 million in the previous quarter * Adjusted
EBITDA was EUR45 million versus EUR36 million in the previous quarter
* Operating Profit was EUR38 million versus EUR32 million in the
previous quarter * Net Income was EUR16 million versus EUR9 million
in the previous quarter

Oxea, a leading global supplier of Oxo Intermediates and Oxo
Derivatives, today announced a significant earnings increase for the
first quarter of 2012 compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. Net
sales of EUR372 million were up by 13% and Adjusted EBITDA amounted
to EUR45million reflecting an increase of 25% from the fourth quarter
of 2011.

After a challenging fourth quarter of 2011 which was affected by the
softening of the world economy and destocking activities along the
value chain in the entire industry, Oxea was able to significantly
increase revenues and EBITDA during the first quarter of 2012. This
positive trend was recognized across the entire product portfolio.
Despite the difficult macroeconomic environment still affected by the
financial turbulence stemming from the European debt crisis, Oxea's
Adjusted EBITDA of EUR45 million clearly outperformed the
expectations for the first quarter of 2012.

Compared to the very strong first quarter of 2011 revenues stayed
broadly flat but margins could not reach the previous level such that
gross profit was EUR 47 million after EUR 68 million in the first
quarter of 2011. The first quarter of 2011 was positively affected by
high export margins and one-off gains from steep raw material price
increases over the average cost value carried in inventories. Oxea
generated strong cash flows mainly due to a significant improvement
of Trade Working Capital. Cash provided by operating activities was
EUR42 million compared to EUR 20 million in the corresponding period
of the prior year. The strong cash generation further improved Oxea's
financial profile and further reduced net debt to 1.8x Adjusted
EBITDA.

In EUR million

Q1 Q4 Q1 Q1
Unaudited 2012 2011 2012 2011
Net Sales 371.5 328.4 371.5 377.0
Gross Profit 47.2 33.8 47.2 68.1
SG&A (9.5) (10.0) (9.5) (10.3)
R&D (1.7) (1.8) (1.7) (1.5)
Other operating 1.9 9.7 1.9 1.0
income/expense
Operating Profit 37.9 31.7 37.9 57.3
Net Income 16.1 8.7 16.1 30.0
Adjusted EBITDA 44.5 35.5 44.5 65.8

Sales
Sales for the three months ended March 31, 2012 were EUR371.5 million, a slight
decrease of 1.5% compared with the corresponding period of the prior year.
Overall, volumes were 2.7% higher mainly driven by production outages in the
corresponding period of the prior year. Oxo Intermediates volumes and Oxo
Derivatives were 2.8% and 3.5% higher respectively than in the corresponding
period of the prior year. Of our revenues for the three months ended March 31,
2012, EUR188 million resulted from sales in Europe, EUR120 million in North
America and EUR63 million in the rest of the world compared to EUR200 million,
EUR107 million and EUR70 million respectively in the prior year period.

Gross profit
Gross profit for the three months ended March 31, 2012 amounted to EUR47.2
million compared with EUR68.1 million in the corresponding period of the prior
year. This development is mainly due to high export margins and one-off gains in
the corresponding period of the prior year as mentioned above such that gross
profit amounted to 10.2% of sales compared with 18.2% in the first quarter of
2011.

Selling, general & administration expense (SG&A) SG&A expense for the
three months ended March 31, 2012 decreased to EUR9.5 million
compared to EUR10.3 million in the corresponding period of the prior
year. The decrease is primarily attributable to lower consulting fees
and lower personnel costs including accruals for employee bonuses.

Other operating income/(expense) Net other operating income for the
three months ended March 31, 2012 amounted to EUR1.9 million compared
with a net other operating income of EUR1.0 million in the
corresponding period of the prior year. The increase is primarily
attributable to higher revenues from site services.

Operating result Operating result for the three months ended March
31, 2012 was EUR37.9 million compared with EUR57.3 million in the
corresponding prior year period primarily as a result of lower gross
profit as explained above partly offset by lower SG&A expense and
higher net other operating income.

Financial result Net financial expense of EUR13.0 million was in line
with the corresponding period of the prior year.

Net income Net income was EUR16.1 million compared with EUR30.0
million in the corresponding period of the prior year primarily
attributable to a lower operating result as mentioned above partly
compensated by lower income taxes.

Adjusted EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA at EUR44.5 million compared with
EUR65.8 million in the corresponding period of the prior year was
driven by lower gross profit partly offset by lower operating
expenses and higher net other operating income.

Cash Flow The company continued to generate positive free cash flow
and during the first quarter of 2012 Oxea generated EUR42.3 million
in cash from operating activities compared with EUR20.0 million in
the corresponding period of the prior year. Higher inflows from
working capital were partly offset by lower earnings from operating
activities and higher income tax payments.

Cash used in investing activities was EUR14.0 million compared with
EUR 5.6 million in the corresponding period of the prior year due to
higher spending for growth projects.

Cash used in financing activities was EUR23.1 million compared to EUR
23.9 million in the corresponding period of the prior year.

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.

Please note:

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)
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