Current Trading Update April 8th 2019
LYNDHURST – April 8, 2019
INEOS Group Holdings S.A. (“the Group”) announces its recent trading performance.
Based on management’s preliminary analysis and certain estimates, management expects that the EBITDA before exceptionals for the three-month period ended March 31, 2019 will generally be in line with the trends observed in the year ended December 31, 2018. Management estimates that for the three-month period ended March 31, 2019, the Group’s EBITDA before exceptionals was lower as compared to the three-month period ended March 31, 2018, reflecting lower ethylene margins in North America resulting from the expansion of ethylene supply in the United States as well as a planned outage at our Rafnes cracker.
Management estimates that EBITDA before exceptionals for the two-month period ended February 28, 2019 has decreased by approximately 16% compared to EBITDA before exceptionals for the two-month period ended February 28, 2018. Management estimates that the debt levels as of March 31, 2019 were higher, reflecting the incurrence of a floating rate loan on March 26, 2019, than those as of December 31, 2018 and the liquidity as of March 31, 2019 was lower, reflecting the €1,450.0 million dividend the Group paid to INEOS Holdings Luxembourg S.A. in February 2019 (the “February 2019 Dividend”), than that of December 31, 2018.
The information as of and for the three-month period ended March 31, 2019 and for the two-month period ended February 28, 2019 is based solely on preliminary internal information used by management. Our interim financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 have not yet been completed. This information is preliminary and based on a number of assumptions that are subject to inherent uncertainties and may change. It may not be indicative of the actual financial quarterly results or financial condition as of quarter-end and may not be indicative of any other period.
On April 2, 2019, the Group paid INEOS Holdings Luxembourg S.A. a $296 million dividend related to the repayment of the Group’s preferential interest in INEOS Investments Partnership (the successor to INEOS Investments LLP) following the sale by INEOS Investments Partnership of its assets to affiliates in March 2019.
Forward Looking Statements
This announcement includes “forward-looking statements,” within the meaning of the U.S. securities laws and the laws of certain other jurisdictions, based on our current expectations and projections about future events, including: the cyclical and highly competitive nature of our businesses; our significant debt service obligations, as well as our ability to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt; risks associated with our capital structure and our other indebtedness; our sales growth across our principal businesses and our strategy for controlling costs, growing margins, increasing manufacturing capacity and production levels, and making capital expenditures; our ability to deleverage through strategic disposals of certain assets and non-core businesses; raw material costs or supply arrangements; our technological and manufacturing assets and our ability to utilize them to further increase sales and the profitability of our businesses; impacts of climate change, including regulatory requirements on greenhouse gas emissions, the costs to purchase emissions allowances and the physical risks to our facilities of severe weather conditions; current or future health, safety and environmental requirements and the related costs of maintaining compliance with, and addressing liabilities under, those requirements; operational hazards, including the risk of accidents that result in injury to persons and environmental contamination; our ability to retain existing customers and obtain new customers; our ability to develop new products and technologies successfully; our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses with our historical business and realize anticipated synergies and cost savings, including with respect to businesses acquired; currency fluctuations; our ability to attract and retain members of management and key employees; our relationship with our shareholders, affiliates and joint ventures and general economic, social or political conditions. These and other factors could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein.
All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, statements regarding our future financial position, risks and uncertainties related to our business, strategy, capital expenditures, projected costs and our plans and objectives for future operations, may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “may,” “assume,” “plan,” “intend,” “will,” “should,” “estimate,” “risk” and similar expressions or the negatives of these expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, from time to time we or our representatives, acting in respect of information provided by us, have made or may make forward-looking statements orally or in writing and these forward-looking statements may be included in but are not limited to press releases (including on our website), reports to our security holders and other communications.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results.