Auriga Industries A/S : Auriga, Divestment of local activity in Switzerland and confirmation of outlook 2012

Auriga Industries A/S, Harboøre, Denmark, 2013-01-29 14:18 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Company announcement no. 1/2013

January 29, 2013

Divestment of local activity in Switzerland and confirmation of outlook 2012

Today, an agreement has been entered with the Management in Stähler Switzerland about a management buyout. The company, which has been part of the group since the acquisition of Stähler in 2008, is marketing and distributing a broad product portfolio from a number of crop protection suppliers. Revenue exceeds DKKm 100, and the agreement ensures local ownership of the company, an attractive price to Auriga and continued access to sell the products of the group through the local company to the market in Switzerland in future.

The divestment is expected to be closed in Q1 2013 and entails a profit for accounting purposes of just below DKKm 40 in addition to reducing the net interest-bearing debt with more than DKKm 100 in 2013. The parties have agreed not to disclose any further details of the agreement.

Preliminary FY key figures confirm outlook

The preliminary, not yet audited, financial statements for 2012 show developments as expected and most recently announced in the company announcements of November 21, 2012. Revenue of just under DKKm 6,300 is expected with an EBITDA margin of more than 10% and an ordinary operating profit (EBIT) of just more than DKKm 500 before the non-recurrent expenditure of DKKm 95 including legal costs relating to the arbitration decision in the USA mentioned in the above announcements. An EBIT of more than DKKm 405 after the non-recurrent expenditure is thus expected.

A better than expected positive free cash flow is expected to reduce the net interest-bearing debt to less than DKKm 2,000, even though the payment of the non-recurrent expenditure of DKKm 95 has been realized in 2012 rather than in 2013 as previously announced.

The positive developments with progress on objectives and strategic focus areas are expected to continue in 2013. The annual report for 2012 including outlook of 2013 will be released as previously announced on March 15, 2013.

Conference call at 15.00h CET

Auriga will host a conference call in English today at 03.00 pm CET (Danish time) for institutional investors and analysts in order to answer questions relating to this announcement. Participants are kindly requested to call in no later than 02.55 pm CET (Danish time) on tel: [phone] or [phone] providing passcode 7124 3331.

AURIGA INDUSTRIES A/S

Kurt Pedersen Kaalund
President & CEO

Enquiries concerning this announcement should be addressed to President & CEO Kurt Pedersen Kaalund on tel. [phone].

Facts about Auriga

Auriga Industries A/S is the listed parent company of Cheminova A/S, which is the wholly owned operating company domiciled in Denmark. Cheminova is developing, producing and marketing chemical crop protection products. All activities are carried out with due consideration for the environment and in compliance with ever higher sustainability standards. The products are being sold in more than 100 countries, and exports count for 99% of sales. In 2011, the group posted revenue of approx. DKK 5.7 billion and has more than 2,100 employees in a global organisation with subsidiaries in 23 countries.