Highlights
•Continued good performance in Q2 concludes very strong H1
•Sales up 11% to €4,320m, with 8% organic growth
•Adjusted EBITDA up 16% to €721m, driven by both Nutrition and Materials
•ROCE up 170 bps to 12.2%
•Net profit up 42% to €312m
•Interim dividend of €0.58 per ordinary share
•Outlook 2017: slightly improved

Key figures and indicators
.
in € million
H1 2017 H1 2016 % change volume price/ mix FX other

Sales 4,320 3,907 11% 6% 2% 3% 0%
Nutrition 2,778 2,545 9% 5% 1% 3% 0%
Materials 1,426 1,240 15% 8% 5% 1% 1%
Adjusted EBITDA 721 624 16%
Nutrition 528 462 14%
Materials 241 212 14%
EBITDA 689 603
ROCE (%)1 12.20% 10.50%
.

1) January up until June

CEO statement

Feike Sijbesma, CEO/Chairman of the DSM Managing Board, commented: “DSM maintained its positive momentum with a very strong first half-year performance. The second quarter was another very good quarter.

Halfway through Strategy 2018, we are well ahead of our targets. All businesses are delivering on their growth initiatives, helping us outpace the market; we increasingly provide our customers with innovative solutions, resulting in a continued shift toward specialties. Furthermore, we are fully on track with our wide-ranging cost-reduction and efficiency improvement programs, while anchoring the high-performance culture we strive for. We also continued to make good progress with our sustainability agenda, future-proofing our operations and delivering products and solutions which help our customers to make their businesses more sustainable. The expected Patheon transaction demonstrates our commitment to monetize the significant value within our associates and earlier than anticipated.

While being mindful of the volatile macro-economic environment and the higher-base results achieved since 2015, we are confident for the remainder of the year and have increased our outlook for the full year."

Outlook 2017 slightly improved

DSM now expects to deliver full-year 2017 results above the targets set out in its Strategy 2018, with an EBITDA growth for the year moving slightly up from high single-digit to double digit, and with a ROCE increase moving from double digit basis points to over 100 basis points.

Q2 Highlights
•DSM reports a very good Q2
•Sales up 8% to €2,161m, with 6% organic growth
•Adjusted EBITDA up 15% to €376m
•Nutrition: 4% organic sales growth; Adjusted EBITDA up 14%
•Materials: 4% volume growth; Adjusted EBITDA up 9%

Key figures and indicators. in € million
H1 2017 H1 2016 % change volume price/ mix FX other

Sales 2,161 1,994 8% 4% 2% 2% 0%
Nutrition 1,380 1,295 7% 4% 0% 3% 0%
Materials 725 640 13% 4% 7% 1% 1%
Adjusted EBITDA 376 328 15%
Nutrition 271 237 14%
Materials 128 117 9%
EBITDA 355 332
ROCE (%)1 12.20% 10.50%
.
1) January up until June

Key figures and indicators. in € million
H1 2017 H1 2016 % Change Q2 2017 Q2 2016 % Change

Sales 4,320 3,907 11% 2,161 1,994 8%
Adjusted EBITDA 721 624 16% 376 328 15%
Nutrition 528 462 14% 271 237 14%
Materials 241 212 14% 128 117 9%
Innovation Center 1 1 0 0
Corporate Activities -49 -51 -23 -26
Adjusted EBITDA margin 16.7% 16.0% 17.4% 16.4%
EBITDA 689 603 355 332
Adjusted EBIT 478 396 21% 256 211 21%
EBIT 441 375 235 215
Capital Employed 7,692 7,616
Average Capital Employed 7,831 7,542
ROCE (%) 12.2% 10.5%
Effective tax rate 18.0% 18.5%
Adjusted net profit 338 244 39% 175 135 30%
Net profit - Total DSM 312 220 42% 163 135 21%
Adjusted net EPS 1.90 1.36 40% 0.98 0.76 29%
Net EPS - Total DSM 1.75 1.22 0.91 0.76
Cash Flow 329 319 3% 133 182 -27%
Capital Expenditures1 250 177 120 78
Net debt 2,205 2,466
.

1) Cash, net of customer funding

In this report:
a) ‘Organic sales growth’ is the total impact of volume and price/mix;
b) ‘Total Working Capital’ refers to the total of ‘Operating Working Capital’ and ‘non-Operating Working Capital'

Strategy 2018: Driving Profitable Growth

DSM’s Strategy 2018: Driving Profitable Growth is focused on ensuring that the potential of the business portfolio that has been created over recent years is translated into improved financial results. Reflecting its disciplined focus on performance, DSM implemented a three-year strategic period 2016-2018 with two headline financial targets: high single-digit percentage annual Adjusted EBITDA growth and high double-digit basis point annual ROCE growth.

DSM is delivering significantly ahead of schedule at the halfway point of Strategy 2018, having achieved EBITDA growth rates and improvements in return on capital double the original targets set.

DSM has defined clear actions to achieve its targets, including outpacing market growth, cost reduction and efficiency improvement programs and making a continuous push for consistent improvements in capital efficiency.

Outpaced market growth

DSM has outpaced market growth in 2016 and again in H1 2017, growing at rates around double the markets it operates in. DSM continued to leverage its innovation capabilities together with market insights and close customer relationships to accelerate growth for its solutions in its key segments and to develop and open new segments. DSM also took further steps on promising innovation projects for future growth with a wider societal impact, such as Clean Cow, Green Ocean, Stevia and Niaga.

Cost-reduction and improvement programs

DSM has instigated extensive cost-reduction and improvement programs which will deliver €250-300 million in cost savings versus the 2014 baseline. These well-identified programs continue to progress as planned and are on track to deliver the targeted benefits.

Additional actions underpinning Strategy 2018

Besides stepping up the financial performance of DSM’s businesses, Strategy 2018 comprises additional elements aimed at future-proofing the company, providing a strong and sustainable basis for long-term value creation for all its stakeholders.

For DSM, sustainability is a core value as well as an important business driver. DSM’s competences and business plans have a strong link with the Sustainable Development Goals. While DSM’s activities align with many of the SDGs, there are five SDGs on which the company and its businesses can be most influential. In doing so, DSM is focused on delivering science-based, sustainable and scalable solutions that help address challenges the world faces and positively impact the value chain. Not only do these products and solutions (‘Brighter Living Solutions’) offer higher growth rates and better margins, the sustainability aspirations also provide DSM with a focus area to reduce operating costs by increasing its environmental efficiency.

DSM continued to make good progress toward its sustainable operations aspirations in H1 2017:
•DSM was recently assessed as an ESG (environmental, social and governance) leader within the chemicals industry by Sustainalytics, ranking number 1 out of 130 companies (Assessment as of July 2017, based on 2016 reporting from DSM). This builds further on DSM’s leadership position in reporting benchmarks, having also been named the global leader in the Materials industry group in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index again in 2016, the seventh time the company has held the number one position.
•DSM’s drive to improve its environmental efficiency is fully on track, with further improvements in both greenhouse-gas efficiency and energy efficiency in H1 2017.
•The company now sources about a fifth of its purchased electricity from renewable sources.
•DSM is also looking to further build on the progress made in 2016 on a number of important social parameters, including employee engagement, which in 2016 was up versus prior year.
•A safe working environment remains of paramount importance; a relative increase in the number of incidents in the first months of 2017 was a cause for concern and led to remedial actions to boost awareness of and —even more importantly— behavioral adherence to, a ‘safety-above-all-else’ mindset throughout the organization, which will continue into the second half of the year.

DSM is adjusting its global organization and operating model to support the company’s growth and to create a more agile, commercially-focused and cost-efficient business. Actions such as the implementation of new target operating models in ICT, Finance, HR, Indirect Sourcing, Communication and Legal are almost all complete; the emphasis at this stage is above all on ensuring that the new way of working is truly anchored in the organization and in supporting mindset and behaviors.

Talent management and development is a further strategic cornerstone. DSM continued to invest in its talent pipeline to ensure it can sustainably address future challenges and demands, and rolled out a new learning and development module called Lead & Grow, which in the meantime has been followed by almost all executives at the company.

Inclusion & Diversity is an important enabler for a high-performing organization and DSM continues to strive to achieve a balanced and representative workforce. The appointment of Judith Wiese as Executive Vice President People & Organization and member of the Executive Committee is a further step in diversifying DSM’s most senior leadership. DSM’s Executive committee will consist of seven members of whom two are female, with in total five nationalities represented.

DSM ultimately intends to monetize the partnerships that have been established for its former pharma activities (DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals and Patheon) and for the former bulk chemical businesses (ChemicaInvest). A first step was taken in July 2016 with the sale of 4.8m shares in Patheon N.V. in connection with its successful IPO. This resulted in a first gain for DSM of €232 million in Q3 2016. In May 2017, the Board of Directors of Patheon unanimously approved the acquisition of Patheon by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for USD 35.00 per ordinary share. DSM has entered into a tender and support agreement with Thermo Fisher pursuant to which DSM will tender its remaining approximately 48.7 million shares in Patheon in the transaction, expected to result in cash proceeds of about USD 1.7 billion.

DSM is building for further growth beyond 2018. DSM continued to make good progress with a number of promising programs in the company’s innovation pipeline. For Nutrition, these include among others the Clean Cow project for reduced methane emissions in cattle, the Green Ocean partnership for more sustainable, nutrient-rich fish-feed, the fermentative stevia sweetener platform, and plant-based proteins for new nutrition applications. Initiatives in Materials include Niaga® Technology for fully-recyclable carpets, ForTii® high-performance plastics and Dyneema® Carbon Composites. DSM expects these and other initiatives to contribute to the company’s Adjusted EBITDA growth in the years beyond 2018.

Cash flow from operating activities amounted to €329 million in H1 2017, which was slightly higher than H1 2016.

Total Working Capital amounted to €1,591 million at the end of Q2 2017 compared to €1,481 million at the end of Q2 2016. The higher working capital reflected the higher level of sales (18.4% as a percentage of annualized Q2 sales, which was somewhat below Q2 2016).

Net debt amounted to €2,205 million compared to €2,466m end of June 2016. The decrease of €261 million was mainly due to the proceeds from the secondary offering of Patheon in total of €219 million in Q3 2016.

Interim dividend

DSM will pay an interim dividend of €0.58 per ordinary share for 2017. As usual, this represents one third of the total dividend paid for the previous year. The interim dividend should not be taken as an indication of the total dividend for the year 2017. The interim dividend will be payable in cash or in the form of ordinary shares at the option of the shareholder, with a maximum of 40% of the total dividend amount available for stock dividend. If more than 40% of the total dividend is requested by the shareholders to be paid out in shares, those shareholders who have chosen to receive their dividend in shares will receive their stock dividend on a pro rata basis, the remainder being paid out in cash. Dividend in cash will be paid after deduction of 15% Dutch dividend withholding tax. The ex-dividend date is 3 August 2017. The interim dividend will be payable as from 24 August 2017.

Overview of Alternative Performance Measures (APM) adjustments to EBIT(DA)

The following overview gives a summary of APM adjustments.

APMs H1 2017:
•Nutrition: EBITDA adjustments amounted to -€9 million relating to the profit improvement programs. EBIT adjustments amounted to -€13 million including -€4 million asset impairment.
•Materials: EBITDA adjustments amounted to +€1 million (EBIT+€1 million) relating to the release of a litigation provision.
•Innovation: EBITDA adjustments amounted to +€1 million (EBIT+€1 million) relating to the release of a restructuring provision.
•Corporate Activities: EBITDA adjustments amounted to -€25 million of which -€18m related to restructuring programs and -€7 million related to the spin-off of some research activities.
•EBIT adjustments amounted to -€26 million including -€1 million asset impairment.

APMs Q2 2017:
•Nutrition: EBITDA adjustments amounted to -€4 million (EBIT -€4 million) relating to the profit improvement programs.
•Corporate Activities: EBITDA adjustments amounted to -€17 million (EBIT -€17 million) of which -€10 million related to restructuring programs and -€7 million related to the spin-off of some research activities.


lees verder op
https://www.dsm.com/corporate/media/informationcenter-pub/2017/08/financial-results-q2-2017.html

tijd 09.22
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