Corbion Q4 2015 Sales Increase by 14.9 Percent

02 Mar 2016 --- Corbion has reported that Net sales in Q4 increased by 14.9% to € 230.4 million (Q4 2014: € 200.6 million) due to organic growth (4.5%), the acquisition of Archer Daniels Midland's (ADM) lactic acid business (1.4%), and favorable currency movements (9.0%). The currency impact was mainly caused by the stronger US dollar against the euro.

Corbion made significant progress in the execution of its Disciplined Value Creation strategy during 2015. Higher growth rates combined with the implementation of the Streamline productivity improvement program resulted in an organic EBITDA increase of 16.2% in 2015.

EBITDA excluding one-off items in Q4 2015 increased by 9.9% to €33.2 million. Corbion confirms its intention to construct a 75kTpa PLA plant. The company proposes a return to shareholders of €75 million, in addition to the regular dividend.

Tjerk de Ruiter, CEO of Corbion comments “I am very pleased with the progress we have made in 2015 in executing our strategy. As anticipated, Q4 profit growth was lower than in previous quarters partially due to several nonstructural items.”

“In 2016, our priorities under the Disciplined Value Creation strategy will be the completion of Streamline and driving profitable top-line growth. After successfully completing the pre-engineering phase we have commenced basic engineering for a 75kT PLA plant in Thailand, expected to be operational in the second half of 2018."

Organic sales growth in Biobased Ingredients was 1.8%, comprising volume growth of 0.3% and price/mix effects of 1.5%. The positive price/mix trend was due to a higher percentage of high value-add products and successfully passing on higher raw material costs, particularly in the Food business segment.

Organic growth in Biobased Innovations was mostly driven by market-seeding bioplastics sales. The price/mix impact in Biobased Innovations was related to a shift in the portfolio to higher value-add products.

In food, volume growth was the main driver of the 3.7% organic growth. In the Biochemicals business segment, price/mix increased by 2.6% due to growing Medical Biomaterials sales and a lower contribution of Feed acidifiers. Volume growth in Biochemicals was negative, due to a decrease in Feed acidifiers and petrochemical-related segments. Growth in Biobased Innovations was mostly driven by lactide and PLA sales.