While the past fiscal year 2020 was still characterized by a Corona-related slump in orders in many business areas of SGL Carbon, demand picked up again in the first six months of 2021. Accordingly, Group sales increased by 8.8% to €496.7 million in H1 2021 (H1 2020: €456.5 million).

The Carbon Fibers and Composite Solutions Business Units particularly contributed to the €40.2 million increase in sales. Carbon Fibers contributed €166.4 million to Group sales, especially benefiting from increased demand from the automotive market segment. In the Composite Solutions Business Unit, the increase in sales of 52.4% to €60.2 million was also primarily based on the recovering demand from the automotive industry.

With sales of €221.2 million, the Graphite Solutions business area contributed around 44.5% of SGL Group sales. The 3.8% increase in the division's sales was particularly due to the positive development in the important markets of the LED, semiconductor and automotive industries.

SGL Carbon's adjusted EBITDA (adjusted for one-off effects and non-recurring items) improved by 70.7% to €71.7 million in the half-yearly comparison (H1 2020: €42.0 million). The improvement in earnings was due to higher capacity utilization as a result of higher sales and, in particular, the savings already achieved under the transformation program. However, higher purchase prices for raw materials, energy as well as transport and logistics had a negative impact on earnings, which could be compensated by savings resulting from other areas.

Adjusted EBITDA does not include one-off effects and non-recurring totaling minus €5.2 million. EBIT has also increased significantly to €38.3 million in the first half of 2021 compared to €5.7 million in the prior-year period. Apart from the positive effects mentioned above, the EBIT increase also results from the € 5.1 million decrease in depreciation and amortization to €28.2 million (H1 2020: €33.3 million) due to the impairments carried out at the end of 2020.

In consideration of the slightly improved financial result of minus €14.0 million (H1 2020: minus €15.8 million), the consolidated result for the first six months of the current financial year was positive at €17.9 million, compared with minus €13.8 million in the same period of the previous year (in each case after deduction of non-controlling interests of €0.2 million). Therefore, positive earnings per share of €0.15 could be reported again in the first half of 2021.

SGL Carbon's net financial debt decreased by €39.8 million or 13.9% to €246.7 million as of June 30, 2021. Main reason for this development was the increase in liquidity by €42.5 million mainly based on the positive free cash flow of €56.5 million.

As of June 30, 2021, equity attributable to equity holders of the parent company increased by €56.1 million (+25.4%) to €276.8 million (December 31, 2020: €220.7 million). Accordingly, the equity ratio increased to 20.8% as of June 30, 2021 (December 31, 2020: 17.5%).

For the financial year 2021, the company now expects consolidated sales of around €1.0 billion (previously: €920 - 970 million). In line with developments in the first half of 2021 and the results from the transformation, adjusted EBITDA for 2021 is expected to be between €130 - 140 million (previously: €100 - 120 million). Accordingly, a slightly positive net profit is now forecasted for fiscal year 2021 (previously: €-20 million to €0).