Borregaard ASA

OSE:BRG

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q3

[Per Arthur Sørlie, President & CEO]

Good morning and welcome to this third quarter 2021 presentation for Borregaard. My name is Per Sørlie. I'm the CEO of the company. I will be joined this morning by our Chief Financial Officer, Per Bjarne Lyngstad, and we will take you through the following agenda. I'll go into the highlights for the third quarter, the market situation in each of the business segments. We have made an investment in a company called Alginor during the third quarter. I'll give you some brief background on that, and then the outlook for the remainder of the year. And then Per Bjarne will take over and go through the financial performance in more detail. First, the highlights for the third quarter. We delivered an EBITDA of NOK 391 million, up from NOK 266 million in the same quarter last year. We saw a very strong performance across a number of areas, particularly in the BioSolutions business. We continued the strong development that we have seen during the last 2 quarters. We have higher deliveries and improved product mix in BioMaterials. We had a high sales volume and increased sales price in -- for bioethanol. And in the energy side, Borregaard -- the bulk of Borregaard or the majority of Borregaard energy consumption is secured through long-term contracts, but we do have a share of the energy that can fluctuate with the spot prices in LNG and electricity. And during this quarter, we saw a high spot energy prices, which had a negative impact in this particular quarter. On the other hand, the lower wood costs continue to contribute in a positive way to the result. We also saw a very strong cash flow in the quarter. And as I mentioned, in July, we made an investment in a company called Alginor ASA that I will refer to in a minute.If you take a look at the business areas and the market situation. First, in BioSolutions, the average price in sales currency came in 19%, about the same quarter last year. So this is more or less in line with what we have seen recently. The price increases is a combination of real price increases, reduced sales volume to low applications that give a technical higher average in price and also a favorable development in product mix. So combined, those 3 drivers gave a price increase of 19% versus last year. The sales volume is 7% lower versus the third quarter last year, and this is, of course, due to the reduced raw material base. We think that roughly 90,000 tonnes per quarter is a representative of the run rate that we have now in production and sales. This was partly compensated. The reduced raw material base was then partly compensated by an increased volume from the Florida plant. And the volume reduction, again, is mainly into the low-value construction applications. So hence, the development in average price as well. Then in BioMaterials, we had higher deliveries in specialty cellulose compared to the same quarter last year. So there is a positive volume deviation. The actual sales volume in the quarter is just slightly above the production rate, I would say. Reduced sales price is largely offset by improved product mix. As we have communicated for this calendar year, the price in sales currency should end up 2%, 3% lower than the same price -- the price last year, and this was also reflected in this quarter, but the improved product mix compensates for this small price reduction. Then in Fine Chemicals, we had a high sales volume and increased price for bioethanol that contributed positively in this area. In the fine chemical intermediates, we had a slightly lower sales volume compared with the same quarter last year. Then I will talk a few minutes about Alginor. We announced in July that we would make investments in this company. And Alginor is a start-up company. It's a marine biotech company in development based on the West Coast of Norway in the city of Haugesund. It's -- the core technology here is twofold. It's a sustainable harvesting of the seaweed kelp and also biorefining of the kelp raw material into a number of different products. So we're utilizing the whole raw material to make different products. The target markets here will be high-value ingredients that go into a global market for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. And the -- what -- why is this a good match for Borregaard? Well, both companies have a strategy that's built on full utilization of a sustainable raw material, and that goes into a high-value products or a specialized market. And the particularly interesting thing here is the combination that Borregaard has in competence between wood chemicals and wood chemistry and fine chemistry. And I think that particularly relevant when you compare Borregaard and Alginor's background in Fine Chemical intermediates, where we have a lot of experience from development, scale-up, manufacturing and sale of products according to current good manufacturing practice principles and food-grade quality, which also would include our biovanillin business. So we think there are a lot of relevant overlap between the 2 companies in terms of competence and strategy. And what is our engagement in Alginor? Borregaard will acquire shares in 4 different transactions that will bring our ownership share up to 35% until the end of April 2024. If we go all through with all transactions, we will have invested NOK 270 million. If the last tranche is not fully subscribed for whatever reason, the last tranche is NOK 126 million out of the NOK 270 million, then Borregaard is obliged to pay a break fee of NOK 6 million. Borregaard also has a member of the Board as part of this agreement. And Alginor has already, on several occasions, utilized Borregaard biorefinery demonstration place -- plant to further the process development of this blue biorefinery concept. So a long-term investment for Borregaard and a development project, I would say. Then on to the outlook for the fourth quarter. And just to remind you, at the introduction of this slide, the fourth quarter is historically our lowest-performing quarter for a number of reasons. I'll remind you why that's the case. The BioSolutions, the sales volume in the fourth quarter is expected to be between 85,000 and 90,000 tonnes. So this is slightly below the normal run rate of 90,000 tonnes on average. However, the new biovanillin capacity will be gradually phased into the market, and it will continue to be phased into the market into this fourth quarter. In BioMaterials, the average price for the full year is expected to end up 2% to 3% below the 2020 level. However, the sales volume in the fourth quarter will be significantly lower than in the same quarter last year. And this is not market related; it's a necessity because we have sold a lot more volume in the first 3 quarters than we have actually manufactured. And when we into the fourth quarter, we expect lower production rate, and we already have low inventory. So then we just cannot -- it's not -- we're not capable of delivering the same volume that we did last year in this particular quarter. Fine Chemicals. A weaker sales mix versus the same quarter last year is expected in Fine Chemicals. As you know, we have varying delivery patterns between quarters in fine chemical intermediates, and this particular quarter will be on the low side. Then finally, the production output and energy costs. Every fourth quarter in October, we have our annual maintenance stop, which, of course, leads to a lower production rate for that particular quarter. This year, we will have an extended annual maintenance stop because we had to install some new equipment that will take more than the normal time. And also there is -- of course, due to COVID-19, there is a lot of things to do and catch up in the maintenance stop these days. Also in the fourth quarter, just to repeat that again, most of Borregaard energy volume is secured through long-term pricing, in long-term contracts. However, we do buy some spot of liquified natural gas and electricity, and we expect that this situation will prevail, of course, in the fourth quarter, which will give us some further increase in energy costs across all business areas compared to the third quarter in 2021. So that summarizes the outlook for the fourth quarter. Then I will hand over to Per Bjarne for the financial figures.

[Per Bjarne Lyngstad, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you, Per, and good morning, everyone. Borregaard's operating revenues increased by 13% compared with the third quarter last year from strong sales in both BioSolutions and BioMaterials. EBITDA increased by close to 50% to NOK 391 million compared with NOK 266 million in the third quarter of 2020. BioSolutions had a significant improvement in EBITDA. Also, Fine Chemicals improved while BioMaterials had a result in line with last year. High spot prices for liquefied natural gas and electricity led to increased energy costs for all business areas in the quarter. This was partly offset by lower wood costs. The net currency impact was positive by NOK 5 million compared with the same quarter last year. The EBITDA margin of slightly above 27%, was more than 6 percentage points higher than last year. And earnings per share ended at NOK 2.12, a significant improvement compared with the same quarter last year. Operating revenues in BioSolutions increased by 14% compared with the third quarter last year. Price increases and favorable product mix more than compensated for the lower sales volume. EBITDA increased by NOK 119 million to NOK 251 million. The significant EBITDA improvement was mainly due to the continued impact from increased sales prices and the favorable product mix, partly offset by increased energy costs. BioSolutions is actually the business area in Borregaard which has the largest impact from higher prices for energy. The net currency effects were slightly positive compared with last year. And BioSolutions had a strong EBITDA margin of 30% in the quarter, an increase of 12 percentage points compared with the same quarter last year. In BioMaterials, operating revenues increased by 16% compared with the third quarter last year, mainly from higher deliveries of specialty cellulose. EBITDA was NOK 91 million in line with the third quarter last year. Higher deliveries of specialty cellulose and lower wood costs compensated for reduced sales prices and increased spot energy prices. The net currency impact was slightly positive in this area. The EBITDA margin was close to 23%, 3 percentage points above last year. Fine Chemicals had operating revenues in line with the same quarter last year. EBITDA increased by NOK 6 million to NOK 49 million. The EBITDA improvement was mainly due to high sales volume and increased sales prices for biovanillin. The bio -- sorry for bioethanol. The bioethanol production volume continued at a high level with improved yield and lower costs. Fine Chemical intermediates had a result in line with the same quarter last year. And the net currency impact in Fine Chemicals was insignificant in this quarter. And the EBITDA margin was 37%, 4 percentage points above last year. The net currency impact on EBITDA was positive by NOK 5 million compared with the third quarter of 2020. The slightly positive impact came from reduced hedging losses, which more than offset the negative impact from a close to 4% stronger Norwegian kroner, using Borregaard's currency basket. Hedging losses were reduced by NOK 35 million to NOK 16 million. And using currency rates as of yesterday, the net currency impact in the fourth quarter is estimated to be 0 compared with the fourth quarter of 2020. And the corresponding impact for the full year is estimated to be minus NOK 65 million compared with 2020. Borregaard had a strong cash flow from operating activities also in the third quarter mainly due to the strong result. In addition, tax payments were low in the quarter. Total investments reached NOK 219 million in the quarter. Out of this, NOK 163 million was expansion investments, where the main expenditure was related to the investment in shares in Alginor. The net interest-bearing debt decreased by NOK 128 million. in the quarter. At the end of the third quarter, Borregaard was again well capitalized with an equity ratio of 58% and a leverage ratio, which is net interest-bearing debt over EBITDA, of 1.08. And that concludes today's presentation. Per Sørlie and I will now be ready to answer any questions. It doesn't seem to be any questions, so I think that concludes the presentation.

[Per Arthur Sørlie, President & CEO]

Thank you.

[Per Bjarne Lyngstad, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you.