19   Dicembre   2013

Ceramic machinery sees sales and profits hold strong

An analysis of the ceramic machinery sector based on a representative sample of 95 companies has shown that in 2012 the industry maintained its levels of sales while seeing a small decline in gross operating margin (EBITDA) due to a higher incidence of labour costs. Extraordinary income helped to offset the higher burden of passive interest and foreign exchange losses, allowing operating profit to remain at approximately last year’s levels.

The good financial stability highlights low debt (which however almost doubles if we include intercompany debt), a strong improvement in free cash flow and optimal cash management. The financial cycle is suffering from a delay between payments and receipts, although this is reduced if we consider intercompany payments and advances from customers.

Statistically, the forecasts for profitability indicate a higher probably of maintaining sales figures, although as the sector often operates with very large orders there may be significant jumps linked to variations in sales. However, provided turnover does not fall significantly, there is an approximately 62% probability that EBITDA will remain within a range between 7.2% and 7.9% of produced value.
Summarising the sector’s economic and financial characteristics in a single rating on the S&P scale, our simplified calculations indicate a value of AA-.

For further details see the pdf file which can be downloaded via the link below.