Ardagh Glass profits slump by 37%

Date: 3 September 2004
Source: Irishexaminer

Date: 3 September 2004

ARDAGH GLASS has reported a 37% slump in pre-tax profits for the first half of the year. Profits fell to €6 million even though sales increased by 8% to €225 million.

Higher expenses, interest charges and the write-off of exceptional items hurt the bottom line.

Operating profits excluding exceptionals were flat at €20.2 million. The firm, whose biggest shareholder is chairman Paul Coulson, paid out €2.3 million to cancel outstanding share options. Its interest bill increased by €2 million to €12.6 million as net debt soared 21% to €265m. Mr Coulson said the increased debt was down to a share buyback programme that cost €30m and high capital expenditure of €27m.

Results were affected by plant downtime that was caused by rebuilding work on one of the main furnaces at its Rockware subsidiary, which cost the business more than €2m. Rising energy prices had no effect on profitability, due to Ardagh’s decision to put in place a hedging policy to protect it from price rises. But Mr Coulson warned shareholders that this cover was about to run out and that higher energy costs would hit profits in the second half of the year.

The company was also hit with a €4.4m tax charge, bringing its total tax bill to €7m and wiping out profits. The extra charge arose from a change in British tax law that meant tax breaks associated with a sale-and-leaseback property deal were no longer available.

Mr Coulson had more bad news when he said the company would face greater competition from the middle of 2005, when a glass plant owned by Fermanagh businessman Sean Quinn is scheduled to begin operations. The new plant, which will be located near Chester on the England/Wales border, will be capable of producing 20% of total demand in Britain for glass.

600450 Ardagh Glass profits slump by 37% glassonweb.com

See more news about:

Others also read

The glass sector has the increasingly widespread requirement of having an unlimited catalogue of parametric shapes and creating new ones in a simple way without being an expert in the field.
Shoaib Akhtar is going to be back on Indian TV screens. He is going to be featured in the new TV ad campaign for Asahi Glass.
Glass Confusion is starting the New Year with Beginning Fused Glass group classes. The three-week course will be held Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Western Pennsylvania’s once-thriving glassmaking industry is dwindling, as did the domestic steel industry and for many of the same reasons: competition and cost.
Worldwide glass-substrate capacity is expected to continue to grow more than 40% each quarter through 2005, as a result of capacity expansion by existing glass-substrate suppliers and new companies joining the market, according to DisplaySearch.
Architects Robert and Esteve Terradas of Barcelona describe the city’s newly-renovated and expanded (45,000 m2) Science Museum (completed September 2004) as "a living museum that will set new standards in terms of transparency - a very modern construction that will enable the plants and animals inside to really live and breathe." The project was made possible by the use of an innovative grade of DuPont™ SentryGlas© Plus™ structural interlayer that is "UV-breathable, on the flat roof of an Amazonian rainforest exhibit".The UV-breathable 938 m2 laminated glass roof is rectangular in shape.

Add new comment