EBITDA was Euro 330 million, 13% of sales. The EBITDA improvement was driven to a large extent by the ongoing profit improvement programme.
Operating profit excluding special items was Euro 230 million, 9.1% of sales. Depreciation excluding special items totalled Euro 132 million. Profit before tax was Euro 57 million and excluding special items Euro 216 million. Net interest and other finance costs were Euro 17 million. Exchange rate and fair value gains and losses resulted in a gain of Euro 3 million.
Profit for 4Q 2014 was Euro 8 million and earnings per share were Euro 0.01. Earnings per share excluding special items were Euro 0.32.
Sales for 2014 were Euro 9,868 million, 2% lower than the Euro 10,054 million in 2013. EBITDA was Euro 1,287 million, 13% of sales. Profit for 2014 was Euro 512 million and earnings per share were Euro 0.96. Earnings per share excluding special items were Euro 1.17.
Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO, comments on 4Q and full year 2014 results: “UPM showed good performance in the 4Q 2014, finishing the year with strong earnings momentum. In 2014, our operating profit improved by 24% year-on-year thanks to the successful actions we have taken to improve profit. Return on equity excluding special items was 8.3% for the full year and operating cash flow per share was Euro 2.33. All six UPM business areas performed well in 2014 and four of them reached or exceeded their long-term return targets.
Today, UPM’s Board of Directors decided on a new dividend policy targeting a dividend of 30-40% of UPM operating cash flow per share. Based on this policy, the Board’s proposal for the 2014 dividend is Euro 0.70 per share.”
Through the renewing of the bio and forest industries, UPM is building a sustainable future across six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Paper Asia, UPM Paper Europe and North America and UPM Plywood.