Royal DSM, the life sciences and materials sciences company, has reported preliminary, unaudited, results for 2013 and provided an outlook for 2014. Final audited results, in conjunction with its Integrated Annual Report, will be published as scheduled on 26 February 2014.
DSM delivered roughly 20% higher EBITDA (,314 million vs. €1,109 million) for the full year 2013, in spite of what the company described as the challenging economic environment. For Q4 the company realized an approximately 30% higher EBITDA (€316 million vs. €243 million). Its nutrition business, however, saw flat EBITDA. Nutrition sales for the year increased from€3,667 million to €4,195. Overall sales for the year increased from €9,131 million to €9,618 million; growth in the fourth quarter was from €2,269 million to €2,377 million.
In Q4, DSM said that all clusters delivered a solid performance despite negative exchange rate effects. Nutrition was in addition impacted by a combination of unrelated market headwinds. These included weakness in dietary supplements and fish oil-based Omega-3 markets in the US, soft demand in Western food and beverage markets, and price pressures especially in vitamin E following weak demand in animal feed markets earlier in the year. DSM previously signalled these adverse conditions, but the impact through the end of the year was more pronounced than anticipated.
“We achieved significant strategic progress in 2013, also demonstrated by an approximately 20% increase in full year EBITDA,” said Feike Sijbesma, CEO/chairman of the DSM Managing Board. “We were pleased with the strong performance in Materials Sciences in Q4. Despite the moderate Q4 results in Nutrition, due to currencies and market weakness, DSM’s market positions remained strong. This business with its broad, global offering across the value chain is well positioned to benefit from the structural megatrends, with the need to nourish a growing and aging global population, living increasingly in urban areas, paying more attention to health and well-being. This will continue to drive increased demand for nutritional ingredients. We are and remain firmly on track to deliver on our strategy and to create sustainable value with all our clusters. In the short term our focus will continue on the operational performance of our businesses, supported by our Profit Improvement Program and intensified R&D and innovation programs.”
