Agfa has seen revenue and gross profit fall in the second quarter of 2018. Revenue was 559m Euro, down 10% on the same quarter last year, and gross profit amounted to 180m Euro, down 15.5% on the second period of 2017. The group said top line evolution was strongly impacted by the previously announced product portfolio reorganisation in the Agfa Graphics business and by the strength of the Euro.
Agfa Graphics’ revenue for the second quarter of 2018 fell 15.5% to 261m Euro. Agfa Healthcare fared better, revenue dropping 5.7% to 248m Euro. Revenue rose 1.4% to 50m Euro at Agfa Speciality Products.
In a statement Agfa president and CEO Christian Reinaudo said: "The first six months of 2018 did not yield any major surprise. Excluding the portfolio reorganisation in the Agfa Graphics business group's prepress business and currency effects, our top line evolved as expected with a decline rate lower than in last year's first half. Agfa Graphics continued to face challenges in the prepress market: ongoing decline for analogue computer-to-film products, competitive pressure, market-driven volume declines for digital computer-to-plate products, and high aluminum prices. We therefore announced a global price increase programme for our prepress printing plates in May. Furthermore, we will continue to look into initiatives to actively participate in the necessary consolidation of the industry.”
Reinaudo added: “We made good progress with the reorganisation of our HealthCare IT activities into a stand-alone legal entity structure within the group. Repeating the guidance included in the first quarter publication, we do not expect our full year recurring EBITDA margin to be above the margin reached in 2017. However, we stick to our ambition to target a recurring EBITDA margin of around 10% of revenue on average in the years to come."
Recurring EBITDA reached 8.7% of revenue, versus 9.7% in the second quarter of
2017. Recurring EBIT reached 6.3% of revenue.
Restructuring and non-recurring items resulted in an expense of 9m Euro,
versus an expense of 2m Euro in the previous year. Net finance costs increased from 8m Euro in the second quarter of 2017 to 10m Euro.
At the end of the second quarter of 2018, total assets were 2,293m Euro, compared to 2,233m Euro at the end of 2017. Trade working capital moved from 644m Euro (26% of sales) at the end of 2017 to 646m Euro (27% of sales) at the end of the second quarter of 2018. Net financial debt amounted to 55m million Euro, versus 18m Euro at the end of 2017. Net cash from operating activities amounted to minus 11m Euro.