EANS-Adhoc: Precious Woods Holding Ltd. / 2012 was a challenging year

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Annual Reports/annual report/Sustainable forestmanagement
30.04.2013

Zug/Zurich, 30 April 2013 - 2012 was a challenging and difficult year
- contrary to the positive expectation at the beginning of the year.
The result was significantly impacted by the logistics crisis in
Gabon and the cyclical decrease in sales in the Benelux. The Precious
Woods Group recorded consolidated total revenue of USD 43.9 million
in 2012 (2011: USD 69 million). The fall in turnover is mainly a
result of the transport- and shipping problems in Gabon and the
decline in sales at PW Europe. Earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to USD -3.8 million
in 2012 being in line with estimates from February 2013. This
constitutes a worse result to the previous year of USD 1.7 million.
The net loss improved by contrast, from USD -21.8 million to USD
-17.7 million.

Precious Woods Amazon: positive operational progress The sales
figures in the Brazilian domestic market plummeted by 23% due to
increased competition with illegal timber. Thanks to the significant
boost in biomass sales and export sales, the sales volume decreased
by only 4% to USD 14.2 million. Further improvements were made to
reduce costs; in particular productivity was significantly increased,
which involved the reduction of 72 staff positions. The conversion of
the first saw line as well as further process optimisation had first
positive impacts already in the second half of the year. In addition,
the last major non-operating assets were successfully sold at profit.
The divestment at BK Energia had a negative impact of USD 1.1 million
in the segment Brazil. The EBITDA amounts to USD -1.7 million which
corresponds to an improvement of USD 0.1 million on the previous
year. Yet, from an operational perspective, the operating result
improved by USD 4.9 million.

Precious Woods Gabon: logistical constraints affecting the result The
national logistics crisis and its severe negative impacts on the
business year 2012 continued throughout the first half of the year
and had consequences for large parts of the remaining year because of
backlogs. The complete forest and wood sector of the country suffered
similarly. The collapse of local log sales, veneer exports and a
sharp fall in sales prices was slightly absorbed by a small increase
in sawn-timber volumes. The production units had to also face major
technical problems on several occasions. Especially the new hard wood
sawmill (Bois Divers) still struggled with significant start-up
difficulties. The causes of the problems have been identified and
some of them have been resolved at once. Nevertheless, the production
costs have been reduced above average compared to the reduced sales.
PW Gabon's results also remained way below expectations in the second
half of the year. Overall, EBITDA amounted to USD -0.8 million in
2012, which corresponds to a painful decrease of USD 7.7 million
compared to 2011.

Precious Woods Europe: Unchanged difficult market environment affects
business substantively PW Europe suffered from the weak economy in
the Benelux countries and recorded a decline in sales by 36% to USD
13.7 million. Public spending as well as private consumption went
further down and led to a recession. Nevertheless, the result has
been improved by USD 0.8 million to USD -1.0 million, because the
labour costs were reduced by USD 1.5 million.

Carbon & Energy: marked by divestment in BK Energia In 2012, the
business segment Carbon & Energy registered a net turnover of USD 1.9
million (-68% on 2011 as BK Energia was consolidated for only 3
months) and a positive EBITDA of USD 3.5 million, which is USD 1
million above the result of the previous year. By the sale of 40% of
the shares in BK Energia, the indebtedness could be lowered and a
long-standing lawsuit solved in Brazil. The reported divestment had a
one-off positive effect of around USD 3.4 million on EBITDA.

Corporate activities: great cost reduction For corporate activities,
expenses at EBITDA level have been reduced by USD 4.1 million to USD
3.9 million. Above all, administration, consulting and labour costs
have been reduced significantly. These costs will further decrease in
2013. By now, the holding including trading administration consists
of less than 8 full-time positions.

Financial result: improved At USD -4.9 million, the financial result
improved USD 8.1 million on the previous year. Due to the lower debt,
financing costs have been reduced by USD 2.3 million. At the same
time the previous year's result was financially impacted by an
impairment of USD 3 million. In 2012, the burden of currency
fluctuations was also USD 2.8 million lower.

Precious Woods Holding Ltd: Secured liquidity On October 2012, the
remaining minority of 25% stake in Precious Woods Central America was
successfully sold for USD 13.7 million. The capital received by the
divestment was primarily used to repay early, two convertible loans
with a total nominal value of CHF 7 million and two loans totalling
USD 5 million. On the other hand, capital measures were initiated in
order to secure liquidity in the medium term as determined by the
Board of Directors. Two convertible loans of CHF 2 million each were
committed by two investors in the last quarter of the year and the
extraordinary General Meeting on 18.12.2012 approved with an
overwhelming majority the additional statutory capital increase of
CHF 0.3 million. In the meantime, this increase of capital was fully
subscribed.

Annual General Meeting 2013 The Annual General Meeting will take
place on Wednesday, 22 May 2013, at 3.15 p.m. in the Volkshaus,
Stauffacherstrasse 60, Zurich. Invitations to the Annual General
Meeting, together with the full agenda and the proposals of the Board
of Directors, will be published on 2 May 2013 in the Swiss Official
Gazette of Commerce (SOGC) and on the Precious Woods website. The
Board of Directors proposes Mr. Werner Fleischmann to be elected as a
new Board member.

The full Annual Report is now available for download from the website
www.preciouswoods.com.

end of ad-hoc-announcement ==========================================
====================================== Precious Woods is an
international company active in the sustainable management and use of
tropical forests. The company's core activities include sustainable
management of tropical forests, timber processing and the trading of
FSC-certified timber products. The generation of emission rights and
electricity from wood waste represent further integral elements of
the company's business. Shares of Precious Woods Holding Ltd have
been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange since March 2002. Additional
information about Precious Woods can be found at
www.preciouswoods.com

This document includes forward-looking statements that reflect the
Company's intentions, beliefs or current expectations and projections
about the Company's future results of operations, financial
condition, liquidity, performance, prospects, strategies,
opportunities and the industry in which it operates. Forward-looking
statements involve all matters that are not historical fact. Such
statements are made on the basis of assumptions and expectations
which, although the Company believes them to be reasonable at this
time, may prove to be erroneous.

Further inquiry note:
Precious Woods Holding AG, Jacqueline Martinoli, Head of Finance /
Communications, Tel. +41 44 245 80 15, Fax +41 44 245 80 12,
media@preciouswoods.com

end of announcement euro adhoc
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issuer: Precious Woods Holding Ltd.
Baarerstrasse 79
CH-6301 Zug
phone: +41 44 245 80 10
FAX: +41 44 245 80 12
mail: media@preciouswoods.com
WWW: http://www.preciouswoods.com
sector: Forestry & Timber
ISIN: CH0013283368
indexes: SPI
stockmarkets: Main Standard: SIX Swiss Exchange
language: English