The 2019 result show the transformation on track, with further step up in profitability, despite softer end market demand.
Q4 highlights
- Adjusted operating income up 23% to €223 million despite softer end market demand
- ROS, excluding unallocated costs, increased by two percentage points to 11.0%
- Operating income up from €68 million to €173 million and OPI margin improved to 7.7%
- Delivered an additional €10 million cost savings in this quarter
- Revenue 3% lower and 4% lower in constant currencies, with positive price/mix of 1% more than offset by 4% lower volumes
- Adjusted operating income up 23% to €223 million, driven by ongoing pricing initiatives, margin management and cost-saving programs.
- ROS increased up from 7.8% to 9.9%
Full-year highlights
- Revenue was flat, with positive price/mix of 4% and acquisitions contributing 1%, offset by 5% lower volumes due to our value over volume strategy
- Adjusted operating income up 24% to €991 million driven by pricing initiatives and cost savings.
- ROS up from 8.6% to 10.7% and ROS, excluding unallocated costs, up to 12.0%
- Operating income up 39% to €841 million, including €150 million negative impact from identified items, mainly related to transformation costs and non-cash impairments, partly offset by a gain on disposal following asset network optimization
- OPI margin improved from 6.5% to 9.1%
- Final dividend proposed of €1.49 per share
AkzoNobel CEO, Thierry Vanlancker, commented
“Our 2019 results show we are on track with our transformation. We made good progress, despite higher raw material costs and softer end market demand. Our performance improvement accelerated during the second half of 2019, resulting in business return on sales up by almost 200 basis points to 12.5%.”
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“We delivered on our commitment and returned €6.5 billion to shareholders, following the sale of Specialty Chemicals. At the same time, we continued to invest in our future.
We kick-started a €50 million investment in our US wood coatings business, completed the acquisition of Mapaero to strengthen our global position in aerospace coatings and expanded our Paint the Future innovation ecosystem.”
“The real driving force behind AkzoNobel’s achievements has been our dedicated and diverse colleagues around the world. Together, we remain fully focused on delivering our Winning Together: 15 by 20 strategy during the year ahead.”
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Outlook
We are delivering towards our Winning Together: 15 by 20 strategy and continue creating a fit-for-purpose organisation for a focused paints and coatings company, contributing to the achievement of our 2020 ambition. Demand trends differ per region and segment in an uncertain macro-economic environment. Raw material costs are expected to have a moderately favourable impact for the first half of 2020. Continued margin management and cost-saving programs are in place to address the current challenges. We continue executing our transformation, incurring one-off costs, to deliver the previously announced €200 million cost savings. We target a leverage ratio of 1.0-2.0 times net debt/EBITDA by the end of 2020 and commit to retain a strong investment grade credit rating.