SPAIN
Friday, March 23, 2018, 01:10 (GMT + 9)
Nueva Pescanova Group closed 2017 with a net profit of EUR 298,000, a better result than it had projected in its Strategic Plan 2020, since it obtained profits for the first time one year earlier than expected.
The company's initial estimates for 2017 pointed to a loss of around EUR 7 million, and its managers did not expect to return to the "breakeven point" before 2018.
The company reported that it had invoiced a total of EUR 1,081 million, 2 per cent more than in 2016, and its sales in the retail channel, a strategic segment for the Group, grew 6.3 per cent.
The gross operating result (EBITDA) increased by 18 per cent with respect to the previous year and reached EUR 80 million.
The Group stressed that the restoration of the Group's equity balance thanks to the capital increase, which allowed it to change from EUR 12 million to EUR 144 million of share capital, was one of the main milestones of 2017.
Thanks to this capital increase, it managed to reduce the restructured debt by 35 per cent. Net indebtedness at fair value improved in 2017, reaching a ratio of 6.5 times EBITDA.
Nueva Pescanova explained that it achieved a net positive result after taxes one year earlier than foreseen in the Strategic Plan, also due to several divestments in unprofitable or non-strategic assets included in the Plan, such as the Hasenosa fishmeal factory and the Novahonduras company.
Finally, it pointed out that the strength of the new equity situation and the reduction of the Group's debt thanks to the capital increase that guarantees the resources for the performance of the Strategic Plan until 2020.
The Strategic Plan of Nueva Pescanova Group establishes until 2020, among other challenges, quadrupling the EBITDA in four years; a new commercial ambition focusing the efforts on the so-called Big 5 (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the US); cost optimization; the management of the processes and the centralization of all the company's subsidiaries in a single vertical organization.