Brighter prospects for new-look Semperit after “solid” first half

Vienna – Amid difficult trading conditions and group-wide transition, Semperit Group posted an 18.9% year-on-year decline in earnings (EBITDA) to €43.7 million on first half sales 5.2% lower at €374.2 million.

The results represented a “thoroughly solid performance in a challenging market environment,” Semperit said, noting also the impact of one-off effects on its business.

The latter included non-recurring costs of around €4.1 million from its recent acquisition of the Rico Group and changes to the executive board, noted the group’s 10 Aug report.

More significant, though, was a negative development at Semperit’s ‘discontinued operations’, due particularly to a sharp decline in sales volumes and prices for gloves following a pandemic-related boom.

Semperit contrasted this reversal with the performance of its ‘industrial sector’, which managed to keep EBITDA margin “almost stable” at 18% despite a 4.5% drop in revenue to €355.7 million.

While conveyor belts unit Sempertrans saw “a positive market environment and significant volume and price growth,” the group’s other industrial segments reported “significantly lower sales volumes at stable prices.”

Economic headwinds during the first half of the year led to continued reduction in inventories among customers and to restrained order behaviour, said CEO Karl Haider.

In response, he said, Semperit has initiated “strict cost management, streamlining of processes and a corresponding increase in operating efficiency.”

Haider also highlighted progress with the group’s transition to an “industrial rubber specialist”: the sale (ERJ report) of its medical gloves business now expected to close in August, having received all regulatory approvals.

Semperit, he added, also recently completed the acquisition of the Rico Group, giving the group “a leading technological position in liquid silicone and high-end tooling.”

With its two divisions, ‘industrial applications’ and ‘engineered applications’, robust balance sheet and cost-reduction measures, Semperit “is well positioned both in the current environment and for further growth,” concluded Haider.