Coillte announced its annual results for the financial year ended 31 December 2017. Coillte doubled its operating cash from Euro 15 million in 2016 to Euro 30 million in 2017. Excluding large land transactions EBITDA increased by 6% from Euro 80.3 million in 2016 to Euro 85.2 million in 2017. When large scale land transactions are included EBITDA achieved was Euro 85.2 million in 2017 compared to Euro 98.3 million in 2016, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

The company has now reduced its reliance on large scale land transactions. A record revenue of Euro 298.7 million was achieved, 3.8% ahead of last year. Coillte has started to see real benefits emerge from the restructuring of its business to three autonomous business divisions with annual overhead savings of Euro 16 million realised in 2017 including Euro 2.6 million interest cost savings achieved following the more favourable financing facilities agreed at the end of 2016.

Overall, operating profit before exceptional items, large land transactions and revaluation gains increased by 3% to Euro 48.7 million. A dividend of Euro 8 million was paid to the shareholder, which represents a 29% increase on last year and is the fifth consecutive year of dividend growth.

Commenting on the results the Chief Executive of Coillte, Fergal Leamy said: “This is the third year of our transformation programme and we are making very strong progress on our key financial and operational metrics. The company has now reduced its reliance on large scale land transactions and, excluding these transactions, our EBITDA in 2017 was 6% ahead of 2016. Our key focus in recent years has been on generating, sustainable operating cash flow and increasing the return to our shareholder. Significantly we doubled our operating cash performance in 2017 to Euro 30 million. This continued growth in operating cash is crucial to ensuring we achieve a 5% cash yield on our Euro 1.4 billion asset base by 2020.”

Coillte is Ireland’s largest commercial forestry and land solutions company.