HeidelbergCement announced that it made a new assessment of the current business year based on preliminary numbers for the third quarter 2018.
Sales volumes and revenue of the first nine months of 2018 developed within expectations and the guidance for the full year remains unchanged. However, the outlook for 2018 for the result from current operations before depreciation on a like-for-like basis, that means adjusted by currency and consolidation effects, is adapted to a low- to mid-single digit percentage decline (previously: mid- to high-single digit percentage increase).
Reason for the adjustment is persistent adverse weather conditions in the United States as well as an energy cost inflation that significantly exceeded the company’s expectations and that could only partially be compensated by price increases over the course of the year. Consequently, the company now reckons that the ratio of net debt to RCOBD (leverage) at year-end will amount to more than the so far expected value of 2.5.
Nevertheless, HeidelbergCement assumes that the group share of profit for the year 2018 will be in line with market expectations.
