Heidelberg Cement’s 2014 consolidated financial statements show that the group’s revenue rose by 4% to €12.6 billion (like-for-like/+8%); operating income improved by 5% to €1.6 billion (like-for-like/+13%) and operating cash flow increased by €313 million to around €1.5 billion.
Profit for the financial year reached €687 million (previous year €933 million, of which €420million was from non-recurring effects), a “considerable improvement in results before non-recurring effects.”
Net debt at €6.9 billion does not yet include the proceeds of more than €1.2 billion from the sale of the building products.
The group says there is a positive outlook for global economy although geopolitical and macroeconomic risks remain, and it reported growth in sales volumes of cement, aggregates, and ready-mixed concrete while saying it is well positioned to benefit over-proportionally from the continued economic recovery, particularly in the USA and the United Kingdom.
Calling 2014 the best year in operational terms since the financial crisis, the group says it has brought the 2014 financial year to a successful close despite a challenging environment.
The decisive factors in this achievement were the group’s geographical positioning in countries experiencing solid economic development in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, successful price increases in major markets, and the succcesful implementation of the margin improvement programmes.
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“Revenue and operating income are experiencing a definite growth trend. With the sale of the building products business we have successfully repositioned the company towards our core products cement and aggregates as well as ready-mixed concrete and asphalt.
“Taking into account the selling proceeds, we have reduced net debt by almost €9 billion since the end of 2007 to noticeably less than €6 billion, thereby clearly falling below the goal of €6.5 billion we communicated to the capital market.”
