PRESS RELEASE
2017 FIRST-QUARTER FINANCIAL INFORMATION
ð· Organic sales growth of 1.2%1 (4.4% excluding the Oil & Gas sector).
ð· Sales generated by submarine projects up 32% following production start-ups for two major projects (NordLink and Beatrice).
ð· Strategic initiatives progress as planned.
Paris, May 3, 2017 Today, Nexans announced that its sales for the first quarter of
2017 amounted to 1,570 million euros (versus 1,433 million euros for first-quarter
2016). At constant metal prices2 the sales figure came to 1,137 million euros,
representing organic growth of 1.2% year on year and 5.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2016.
This performance reflects the trends described at the end of 2016:
ð· Since December 2016, growth for all project-based business has remained buoyant despite lower billings for umbilical cables. Sales generated from projects rose 25% in the first quarter of 2017, thanks to the start-up of production under the NordLink and Beatrice contracts and a strong performance from land high-voltage cables.
ð· The industrial cables segments held up well, with automotive harnesses reporting growth of 4.9% and industrial activities other than the Oil & Gas sector reporting growth of 3.2%. Conversely, sales of industrial cables to the Oil & Gas sector were down 38.7% on an organic basis.
ð· Sales of Telecom infrastructure cables jumped 22%, whereas LAN cables and systems saw an 11.8% sales contraction. This drop for LAN cables and systems is temporary and is due to an unfavorable basis of comparison against the exceptionally high business volumes reported by this segment in the first quarter of 2016. It does not reflect any downward trends in the overall market, which is still very robust.
ð· In the Group's other cable businesses (low-voltage cables for the building market, medium-voltage cables for energy operators, and industrial cables excluding automotive harnesses), 2017 got off to a slow start, in line with the trends seen in the second half of 2016.
Commenting on the Group's performance for the first quarter of 2017, Arnaud
Poupart-Lafarge, Nexans' Chief Executive Officer, said:
Our business performance during the first quarter of 2017 was globally in line with expectations. Against the backdrop of persistently weak low-voltage markets, the upturn we anticipated for our project-based business has started to materialize and to drive growth for the Group as a whole. We remain confident that the Group's operating margin will continue to improve in 2017, particularly in the second half of the year.
1
The first-quarter 2016 sales figure used for like-for-like comparisons corresponds to sales at constant non-ferrous metal prices adjusted for the effects of exchange rates and changes in the scope of consolidation. In first-quarter 2017, exchange rates and changes in the scope of consolidation impacted sales at constant non-ferrous metal prices by a positive 33 million euros and a negative 13 million euros respectively.
2
To neutralize the effect of fluctuations in non-ferrous metal prices and therefore measure the underlying sales trend, Nexans also calculates its sales using constant prices for copper and aluminum.
