Borregaard ASA
OSE:BRG
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Borregaard ASA
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Good morning, and welcome to this second quarter 2024 presentation for Borregaard. My name is Per Sørlie. I'm the CEO of the company, and I'll be joined this morning by our CFO, Per Bjarne Lyngstad, and we will take you through an agenda where we can point to the highlights for the quarter with the market situation for the business segments. We have announced an environmental investment, new environmental investment, and I'll also go over the outlook for the rest of the year. Per Bjarne will then come back and talk about the financial figures in more detail.
Before we start the presentation, I just want to remind you that you can submit questions throughout this webcast if you're watching it live. And at the end of the presentation, we will come back and try to answer some of those questions.
The highlights for the first quarter. EBITDA came in at NOK 442 million, up from NOK 435 million in the same quarter last year. Very strong result in BioSolutions, where we had both an improvement in the result, but also a strong improvement in the sales volume.
In BioMaterials, we also had a strong improvement in the sales volume but also reduced sales prices.
In Fine Chemicals, the result came in lower because we had low deliveries of bioethanol in particular.
We had reduced costs both on the energy side and chemicals at large, but this was partly offset by increased wood costs as we had guided for. Slightly negative net currency effects this time, but it was quite neutral compared to the result.
The cash flow was quite negative in the quarter, but this was impacted by very high sales towards the end of the quarter. Inventory levels came down, but the receivables came up at the end of the year -- or the end of the quarter. And I should also remind you that at the end of last year, we had low working capital, particularly low receivables.
Then if we move on to look at the market side. In BioSolutions, the average price in sales currency came in 2% below the same quarter last year. This reduction was mainly due to small changes in the product mix. We had very strong development when it came to agriculture and batteries. And agriculture is really a broad product portfolio in Borregaard. So this was not particularly specific to 1 product line. It was across all product lines.
The sales volume then came in 9% above the same quarter last year. And again, this was driven primarily by increased sales to agriculture. The biovanillin market, on the other hand, continued to be impacted by the high global supply that we see of synthetic products from, particularly China and again, also the FX effects were quite -- slightly negative but quite neutral in this business area. Then the BioMaterials markets. Again, a very strong sales volume, 11% above the first quarter last year. The sales volume came in higher than the production volume, which we had guided for and increased the sales both in total and also the sales of the highly specialized grades versus the same quarter last year. The average price in sales currency on the other hand came down 8%. And if you -- this was actually in line with our guidance, which was that the prices should be in line with the fourth quarter last year.
This is a reduction compared to the price in the same quarter last year. And if you look at the last 3 years, we have increased sales prices significantly over time, including a 15% surcharge that was implemented in 2022.
Then, of course, now we are in a situation where we are negotiating a market price, but as we guided for, after the fourth quarter, we are prioritizing volume over price this year. So the price has been reduced somewhat to some segments in order to secure volumes for this year. On the other hand, we should also say that if we continue to sell more than we produce, obviously, pricing will become an issue later on.
Slightly positive FX impact in this business area. Then the fine chemicals market, the Fine Chemical Intermediates had increased sales volume [indiscernible] contrast media. Prices were, on the other side, reduced somewhat because we had quite a reduction in the price of the main raw material for this product. So a similar situation that we have seen in BioMaterials.
Bioethanol, which is the main driver in this business area, on the other hand, had low deliveries, but stable sales prices compared to last year. Low deliveries, I'll come back to that when I talk about the outlook. We are particularly saying deliveries here and not sales because deliveries vary between quarters. Slightly negative impact from the currency in this business area.
Then I'll just comment on the investment that we approved at the Board level in Borregaard yesterday. This is the Borregaard transition plan to cut Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. This is the -- this road map has been approved by Science Based Targets initiative, and it's in line with the 1.5-degree target in the Paris Agreement. And if you -- we have taken down the CO2 emissions by roughly 1/3 between 2009, 2020, we'll take it down another 42% from 2020 to 2030, and it will be down to net zero in 2050.
If you look at the green staples here are the different actions that will need to be implemented in order to deliver on these targets. If you look at the middle of the page there, we have 30,000 CO2 -- tonnes of CO2 reduction related to electricity for drawing, and that project is just being implemented and completed this year. And that's electrification of the spray dryer units in the BioSolutions business. We have already partly started that up, and it will be fully implemented later this year.
But as you can see, there's a huge project called heat recovery and a couple of other smaller projects that will have to be implemented in order to deliver on the 2030 targets. And electricity is a key driver in all these projects. And that's why we have approved yesterday an environmental investment of NOK 275 million. And this is to prepare for taking delivery of higher volumes of electricity in order to implement these projects.
At the same time, there is a need for an upgrade of the capacity because we have an end-of-life replacement that is necessary. So it's partly an end-of-life replacement, and it's also an upgrade and an increase in the capacity so that we can implement the necessary and required projects in order to deliver on these climate targets.
I should also -- this is being done in collaboration with Elvia, which is a subsidiary of the Hafslund Group, and they own the transmission grid, regional transmission grid in our region. At the same time, I should also say that this increase in electricity capacity also enables a capacity increase at the biorefinery in Sarpsborg.
At the Capital Markets Day, last Capital Markets Day, we said that we were looking into a total increase in capacity across the biorefinery in Sarpsborg between 5% and 10%. This extra electricity capacity will also enable that kind of project. The good news is that this is not an immediate expenditure. We will pay out this project over several years. So it will -- the investment period goes from 2024 until 2028. So it will not have a big impact on the annual CapEx numbers.
Then I will complete or finish my presentation with the outlook. In BioSolutions, we had a very strong quarter in the first quarter. However, we have concluded that it's too early to change the outlook based on what we saw in the first quarter. So we have decided to keep the outlook, which is that we should sell -- increase our sales from 307,000 up to 330,000, and we expect the volume in the second quarter to be in line with the same quarter last year. And the biovanillin market is still impacted by the high supply of synthetic vanillin products. But that remains to be seen. It was a stronger quarter in the first quarter than we had expected, but we will wait another quarter before we draw any more concrete conclusions on that.
In BioMaterials, the sales volume is forecast to be higher than the production output, and the highly specialized grades will also be higher versus the last year.
In the second quarter, we will sell a slightly lower volume than we did in the first quarter. But again, the volume will be higher than the production output. The average price is expected to be at the same level as we saw in the first quarter. There may be some changes due to mix and so forth, but it's primarily -- or roughly on the same level. And the main uncertainty continues to be the construction market as we guided for after the first -- the fourth quarter, we said that if the inventory corrections have now been completed, we will sell a larger volume. We have seen that clearly in the first quarter, and we expect to see it in the second quarter. The uncertainty, however, is whether this is an inventory buildup at our customers or whether it's a real expression of increased demand. But overall, whatever happens in this market, we expect to sell more or deliver more than we produce in 2024.
In Fine Chemicals, we had a slightly disappointing first quarter, and this was primarily down to low deliveries in bioethanol. We -- however, we continue to have the same guidance for the full year. The sales volume in Fine Chemical Intermediates is expected to increase versus last year. And the market conditions for advanced biofuel are favorable and continue to be favorable throughout Europe, and the sales prices and the volume is expected to be largely in line with 2023. Hence, since the volume was lower in the first quarter, it will be higher on average going forward. So the outlook here is unchanged from the fourth quarter.
Cost development and impact from the investment. Wood cost will increase 10% in the first half. We saw that in the first quarter. It will continue in the second quarter. Pricing for the second half has not been set. That will be set towards the end of the second quarter.
In the second quarter, we expect lower energy and other raw material costs as we saw in the first quarter, but this will be partly offset by the increased wood cost. So these will go against each other like we saw in the first quarter.
We also are completing, like I said, this electrification of the spray dryers. This will give us increased flexibility and increased energy efficiency. So we expect also to see some effect from that on the energy cost going forward.
And then, of course, with all the uncertainty around us, not only here in Europe, but also now in the Middle East, we will have to follow closely what happens. We have had a situation in the Red Sea, increased freight cost because of longer freight times and longer freight routes, but we will follow that closely and make the necessary adjustments as we go along.
So that completes my presentation, and I will hand over to Per Bjarne for the financial figures.
Thank you, Per, and good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, Borregaard's operating revenues increased by 7% compared with the first quarter of 2023, mainly as a result of increased sales volume. EBITDA increased by NOK 7 million to NOK 442 million. The result in BioSolutions increased while BioMaterials and Fine Chemicals had lower results.
Sales volume increased for both BioSolutions and BioMaterials, but sales prices were reduced compared with the first quarter of last year in BioMaterials. Cost for energy and chemicals were reduced, but were partly offset by increased wood costs. Net currency effects were almost neutral, like Per said, they were negative by NOK 5 million compared with the same quarter last year.
The EBITDA margin was 22.4%, slightly below the corresponding quarter last year. Earnings per share were NOK 2.01 compared with NOK 2.32 last year. Earnings per share were negatively impacted by higher depreciation, interest expenses and other financial costs compared with the first quarter last year. In addition, the minority interest share of profit increased due to improved result in LignoTech Florida, and Borregaard owns 55% of LignoTech Florida.
Operating revenues in BioSolutions increased by 9% compared with the first quarter last year due to higher sales volume.
EBITDA reached NOK 264 million, NOK 40 million above the same quarter last year. The higher sales volume was also the main reason for the increased result.
Energy costs were reduced, but this reduction was partly offset by an increase in other costs due to cost inflation. Net currency effects were marginally negative compared with last year.
And the EBITDA margin was 24.3%, close to 2 percentage points above the first quarter last year.
Higher sales volume was the main reason for a 3% increase in operating revenues in BioMaterials. EBITDA was NOK 111 million compared with NOK 127 million in the first quarter last year.
High sales volume had also a positive impact on the result and led to an inventory reduction in the quarter. However, as Per explained, sales prices were down compared with last year.
Higher wood costs were offset by reduced energy spot prices. The cold winter had a negative impact on production and energy consumption and affected this area particularly. Net currency effects were slightly positive in this area. And the EBITDA margin was 15.8%, close to 3 percentage points below last year.
In Fine Chemicals, operating revenues increased by 7% compared with the first quarter last year due to increased sales volume for all Fine Chemical Intermediates. EBITDA was NOK 67 million compared with NOK 84 million in the same quarter last year. Both Fine Chemical Intermediates and Bioethanol had lower results compared with last year. Fine Chemical Intermediates had increased sales volume. However, sales prices were reduced as a result of price reduction for the main raw material. In addition, other costs and the main raw material increased for Fine Chemical Intermediates in the quarter.
For Bioethanol, the result was impacted by higher costs and lower-than-normal deliveries. The net currency impact was slightly negative in this business area. And the EBITDA margin was 35% in the quarter, 12 percentage points below last year.
The net currency impact on EBITDA was negative by NOK 5 million compared with the first quarter of 2023.
The Norwegian kroner weakened by approximately 3% compared with the first quarter last year, using Borregaard's currency basket. However, the positive impact from a weaker Norwegian kroner was more than offset by increased hedging losses. Hedging losses were NOK 89 million compared with a loss of NOK 48 million in the first quarter of last year. Using currency rates as of yesterday, the net currency impact for the full year of 2024 is estimated to be minus NOK 5 million compared with the full year of 2023. The corresponding impact for the second quarter is estimated to be minus NOK 25 million compared with the second quarter of 2023.
Borregaard had a cash flow from operating activities of minus NOK 183 million in the first quarter. The cash flow was affected by a significant increase in net working capital. High deliveries of key products towards the end of the quarter resulted in a high level of accounts receivable compared with a low level at the end of 2023. The increase in accounts receivable was partly offset by a reduction in inventories. Tax payments were also high in the first quarter.
Investments were NOK 115 million in the quarter. The largest replacement expenditure was related to reduction of CO2 emissions and improved energy and efficiency and flexibility at the Sarpsborg site. The largest expansion expenditure was related to specialization within BioSolutions.
Net interest-bearing debt increased by NOK 380 million in the quarter as a result of the increase in net working capital. At the end of the first quarter, Borregaard was well capitalized with an equity ratio of 53%, and our leverage ratio, which is net interest-bearing debt of our EBITDA of 1.21. And that concludes today's presentation. Per Sørlie. and I will now be ready to answer any questions, both from the audience here in Oslo, and from those who follow the webcast.
Our Director Investor Relations, Knut-Harald Bakke, will moderate the webcast questions.
Thank you. First question is from Mr. Andres Castanos of Berenberg regarding agricultural sales. Please comment more on the strong sales of your agricultural products this quarter. Are new client wins driving it, better end market demand? Are they accretive to your BioSolutions margins?
First of all, let me say that agriculture is, in summary, the largest share of our sales in BioSolutions. I think it's roughly 30% of our total sales. And we have, like I said in the presentation, a lot of different offerings and products into that market.
In the comment, we say that the product mix is slightly down, and that explains the 2% reduction in the sales price in currency, which means that it's slightly negative if you look at it. But like I said in the presentation, all across this portfolio, we have seen increases. And I would say primarily the increases are from existing customers that are ordering more volume. And it's both high end and low end. But Borregaard's strategy is always, of course, in the long term to develop the high end. But this is across a lot of products and slightly negative for the pricing average.
Also a question slightly related to sales development from Mr. Niclas Gehin of DNB Markets. You report to have had high sales at the end of the quarter. Is this a reflection of a pickup in demand or more normal seasonal fluctuations?
Well, I guess it's both because like we also commented, we had very low sales at the end of last year. So the receivables were, let's say, below average at the end of the fourth quarter and it's above average at the end of the first quarter. I think it's more a coincidence than a trend. But what we can say is that the specialties are usually overrepresented in the first quarter and because people are loading up their inventories and preparing production ahead of the season.
Another question from Mr. Andres Castanos of Berenberg regarding bioethanol. Will the European market for a second-generation bioethanol be impacted by the newly added capacity from RYAM in France in your view? Will we see lower prices due to higher supply in your view?
First, let me say that there are very favorable market conditions in the European Union for a second-generation bioethanol or advanced bioethanol Borregaard is offering. And I think it's important for the market that the -- there is an increase in supply over time. These favorable conditions are put in place to incentivize more production of this kind of biofuel, advanced biofuel, and it is important to see for the politicians in the EU that these measures actually work.
If you look at the size of the market and if you compare that with the added capacity coming from RYAM, it's really no issue in terms of the market balance. And if I'm not mistaken, this has to be confirmed with RYAM, obviously, but my understanding is that they have already presold this volume for several years in the contract.
Question from [ Mr. Marcus Gabelli of Pareto ] regarding BioMaterials. Should we expect higher prices for BioMaterials in 2024, given that you expect a higher share of specialized grades? Could you give some flavor on how you think about long-term price developments in BioSolutions versus BioMaterials?
Well, the -- what we have said for 2024 in general in BioMaterials, and also general for Borregaard level is that pricing will not be an important issue. I've seen significant steps in pricing in the last 3 years. In 2024, the major game changer will be the volume, and that was confirmed in the first quarter both in BioSolutions and BioMaterials. The -- we don't expect -- there are some opportunities to adjust pricing in BioMaterials in 2024 but not very much, I would think, because traditionally, we fixed the price for the year. But if there are changes in demand, if there are some contracts that may be adjusted later on. But as we have said a couple of times now that if we continue to sell more than we produce, obviously, we will have to use the pricing mechanism going forward, but that will primarily be into 2025. And again, to remind you that the market has been 10% of the -- of the market side or the supply side in the market is gone with GP closed, Georgia-Pacific closed their specialty cellulose mill last year. As the market adjusts to this, we expect, of course, that the market will be tight going forward.
Borregaard was not a head-on competitor with GP, but we can supply those kind of products, but usually then you have to go through a qualification with the customer. But also I have to remind you that Borregaard is fully specialized. So if you're going to pick up more business, we will have to replace some business that is already specialized. So this is a mix optimization issue from Borregaard's perspective.
In BioSolutions, I would say that in general, Borregaard has a very strong market position in BioSolutions. So if you look across Borregaard's portfolio, the jewel in the crown is in BioSolutions because of the uniqueness of our technology, the uniqueness of our products and the competitive position that we have. But again, for all Borregaard businesses, specialization is the key, so we are continuously working to replace lower-priced products with higher, more advanced products.
Another Question from Mr. Niclas Gehin of DNB Markets regarding the announced investment. Are the NOK 275 million investment you announced today, partly included in the NOK 650 million to NOK 900 million expansion CapEx program you announced at the Capital Markets Day?
Yes, this is one of the projects that we've foreseen for quite some time. So it was partly included in that period. But of course, at that time, also, we knew that this project will go longer than 2025, which was the -- for our investment forecast we had at that time. So this is pretty much in line with what we said at that point.
Thank you. So unless there are any questions from the physical audience here in Oslo, that concludes our Q&A session for the first quarter of 2024.
Thank you.
Thank you.