The Lenzing Group showed an excellent development of business in fiscal 2016 with substantial improvements of all economic and balance sheet indicators. The decisive factors underlying the company’s success were higher selling prices Lenzing obtained for all of its fiber products, a better product mix and a slight rise in revenue.
Consolidated revenue grew by 8% in fiscal 2016 over the previous fiscal year to 2.13 billion euro. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) increased by 47.6% to 428.3 million euro. The corresponding EBITDA margin rose to 20.1%, up from 14.7% in fiscal 2015. EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) of the Lenzing Group almost doubled with an increase from 151.1 million to 296.3 million euro. The EBIT margin improved to 13.9% from 7.6% in 2015. The group’s net profits rose by 78.9% to 229.1 million euro.
The total fiber sales volume in 2016 rose by 1.4% to about 978,000 tons. The share of specialty fibers as a percentage of total group revenue increased to 42% compared to the prior-year figure of 40.5%. The share of standard fibers in relation to revenue remained unchanged at 47%, with other business areas accounting for the remaining revenue. Seventy-one percent of the fiber revenue was generated in the textile fiber business, and 29% was derived from nonwoven applications.
2016 was also a year of substantial capital investments. In total, Lenzing invested 475 million euro to further expand its specialty fiber capacities in Europe and the U.S., as well as to debottleneck dissolving wood pulp operations in Paskov (Czech Republic) and Lenzing (Austria).