At Euro 326 million in the 4Q 2015 compared to Euro 295 million in 2014, EBITDA was Euro 31 million higher year-on-year, an increase of 11%. Allowing for currency movements and the impact of acquisitions and disposals, comparable EBITDA was 17% higher with higher earnings in both Europe and the Americas and lower Group Centre costs.
Compared to the 3Q 2015, EBITDA in the 4Q increased by 7%, with solid earnings results in both Europe and the Americas and lower Group Centre costs.
Financial Performance Revenue for the year to December increased by Euro 26 million from Euro 8,083 million in 2014 to Euro 8,109 million in 2015 with higher revenue in Europe partly offset by a reduction in the Americas, reflecting the impact of our adoption of the Simadi exchange rate.
Allowing for net negative currency and hyperinflationary movements, principally in respect of the Bolivar and the contribution from acquisitions net of disposals, the underlying year-on-year move in revenue was an increase of over 3%.
Tony Smurfit, Smurfit Kappa CEO, commented: “We are pleased to report a strong 2015 outcome delivering significant improvement across all key financial and operating metrics. We will continue to drive our performance by focusing on marketing and innovation initiatives for our customers, cost efficiency and financial discipline. Our objective is to continue to deliver on our target of 15% ROCE through the cycle.
“We invested over Euro 380 million in acquisitions in 2015 to strengthen and diversify our geographic reach and drive earnings. During the year we invested Euro 450 million to optimise the asset quality in our system and our investments in high return capital investment projects are now also delivering incremental EBITDA growth. We are continually enhancing the breadth and depth of our service offering for customers, while consistently lowering operating costs through our supply chain.”
Smurfit Kappa is one of the leading providers of paper-based packaging solutions in the world.
