Irish-headquartered insulation specialist Kingspan last year edged ahead of the record it achieved in 2022, delivering a 5 per cent increase in trading profit to €877 million.
The company’s full-year results for the year ended December 31st, 2023, show earnings per share were up by 7 per cent, despite revenue declining marginally by 3 per cent to €8.1 billion, and by 7 per cent on an underlying basis.
While some markets displayed volume pressure, the predominant reason for the contraction in revenue was the knock-on deflationary impact of raw material pricing in the early part of the year, the group said.
Kingspan said “tremendous progress” had been made to date on its “planet passionate” agenda, which saw more than 300 projects implemented across the group, delivering a 65 per cent reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions.
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Direct renewable energy usage increased to 34.1 per cent and the percentage of wholly-owned sites with on-site solar PV systems increased to 49.6 per cent.
Total rainwater harvested from manufacturing locations increased to 56.7 million litres, which was about double the amount harvested in the 2020 base year.
Kingspan said a poor start to the year in Germany, the Nordics and central Europe persisted in the latter part of the year.
France, which is the group’s largest market, “remained positive” and the Americas performed “exceptionally well”. Insulated panel order intake was consecutively ahead of the prior year in each of the last seven months of 2023.
Kingspan chief executive Gene Murtagh said: “Despite markets and geographies moving at different speeds, Kingspan was pleased to deliver another year of record profits and record cash generation whilst continuing to innovate and diversify our revenue base.
“Given varying activity levels it is too early to provide any meaningful guidance on outlook, not least as seasonal factors have hampered early progress in some markets.”
The group said €482 million of capital was invested during the year, which included €248 million on acquisitions and €234 million in capital expenditure.
Kingspan also said it has selected a 50 hectare site in Lviv, Ukraine, which is likely to be the location of its €250 million building technology campus over the next five years or so.
The board has proposed a final dividend of 26.6 cent per ordinary share, which is up from 23.8 cent the year before. An interim dividend of 26.3 cent per ordinary share was declared during the year, so the total dividend for 2023 is 52.9 cent compared with 49.4 cent for 2022.
Looking ahead, the group said it was difficult to predict what is in store near term with “opportunities and challenges in equal measure”.
“It is still very much early days in the current financial year, although seasonal factors have hampered early progress in some markets,” it said.
“Our balance sheet is robust and this coupled with a strong development pipeline, purposeful strategy and innovation agenda ought to place us positively in the year ahead.”
Separately, Kingspan announced it signed a series of agreements to acquire the stonewool insulation business and assets of Karl Bachl Kunststoffverarbeitung in Germany. The transaction is expected to complete by March 31st and will be funded from existing cash reserves.
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