SIG slides £55.3m into the red after tough year
SIG, the Europe-wide supplier of insulation, interiors, exteriors and construction products, has slipped into the red after an “exceptionally challenging year”.
The Sheffield-based group’s preliminary results for 2009 show that it made a loss before tax of £55.3m after costs of £115.9m relating to amortisation.
This compares to a profit of £33.1m in 2008 after £104.2m amortisation.
SIG’s total sales for the year were £2.7bn – a decrease of around £310m compared with £3m in 2008.
The firm’s underlying basic earning per share was 9p – which represents a reduction of 84.7% from 58.9p in 2008.
But the company continues to cut its debt – from £697.1m to £254.5m – in order to place itself in a good position for the upturn.
It has also raised £325m via a share placing and actions taken since the middle of 2008 have resulted in total annualised cost savings of £100m.
Les Tench, chairman of SIG, said: “2009 was an exceptionally challenging year for SIG, with the global economic downturn significantly reducing construction activity and hence demand for the products and services supplied by the group.
“The scale of the decline varied by geography and market sector, with a number of SIG’s Mainland European countries of operation less heavily affected than the UK and Ireland.
“The extreme cold weather conditions and snow experienced across the UK and Mainland Europe in January and February have resulted in a particularly slow start to trading in 2010.
“It is management’s expectation that the shape of the year is now more likely to be significantly more weighted towards the second half and that the pre tax profit for the first six months will be well below the result for the equivalent period last year.
“Management action over the last 18 months has improved the Group’s long-term operational efficiency, reduced its fixed cost base and significantly strengthened its balance sheet.
“SIG is therefore well positioned to deal with the likelihood of a number of its end markets continuing to weaken in the coming months and to take advantage of their subsequent later recovery and of any growth opportunities which may emerge.”
