Kemira Oyj has announced its January-March 2024 interim report. According to the company, revenue decreased by 16% to € 763.3 million (906.0). Operative EBITDA decreased by 16% to €162.5 million (192.6). The operative EBITDA margin was stable at a record-high level of 21.3% (21.3%). The operative EBITDA margin improved in the Industry & Water segment.

Kemira divested its Oil & Gas (O&G)-related portfolio on February 2, 2024. All comparisons in this report are made to the comparison period, which includes the Oil & Gas related portfolio.

Kemira’s revenue is expected to be between € 2,700 and EUR 3,200 million in 2024 (reported 2023 revenue: € 3,383.7 million).

Kemira’s President & CEO, Antti Salminen, said: “I had the honor to start as Kemira’s President and CEO in mid-February. I have spent my first months in the role meeting our people and customers as well as taking a holistic look at Kemira’s strategy. Kemira is in excellent shape, which provides a strong foundation to build on. We have a number of strengths: a solid strategy, a resilient business model, committed employees, high customer satisfaction and a very strong financial position. The recent divestment of Oil & Gas further strengthens our business model and reduces cyclicality. It also clarifies our strategy and confirms our commitment to sustainability. We will continue to focus on profitable growth with water, renewable solutions, and digital services as our priority areas. Going forward, we will increasingly concentrate on faster execution to deliver results. Together with our committed team, we are now reviewing our strategic initiatives and targets to see how we can accelerate their execution and create even more value for our shareholders.

“Looking at the performance of the first quarter, we started the year strongly with our focused portfolio. Market demand continued to recover gradually and we saw volume growth both year-on-year and sequentially in both segments. Organic revenue growth was negative as sales prices for energy-intensive pulp and bleaching chemicals declined from an elevated comparison period. Profitability was very strong and the operative EBITDA margin was stable year-on-year at a record-high level of 21.3% during Q1 2024. We had strong margin performance in both segments driven by successful cost management and higher sales volumes. In absolute terms, our operative EBITDA reached € 162 million, a great achievement considering we closed the divestment of Oil & Gas in February. Cash flow was also very strong during the quarter. The proceeds from the Oil & Gas divestment further strengthened our balance sheet, which is currently record strong with net debt / operative EBITDA at 0.6.

“The pulp and paper market continued to recover gradually during Q1 2024. However, the political strikes in Finland forced some of Kemira’s pulp and paper customers in Finland to curtail production. The strikes had a limited impact on the Pulp & Paper segment’s Q1 2024 performance, which was robust. Sales volumes increased both sequentially and year-on-year despite the political strikes in Finland. The segment’s revenue declined to EUR 423 million as sales prices for energy-intensive pulp and bleaching chemicals declined from an elevated comparison period. Operative EBITDA margin was strong at 20.9%, which is an excellent achievement.

“In Industry & Water, the water treatment market remained steady on both the municipal and industrial side. Kemira’s Industry & Water segment continued its excellent performance during the quarter. Revenue was EUR 340 million, while the operative EBITDA margin reached a record-high of 21.8%. Kemira closed the divestment of Oil & Gas on February 2, 2024 and the positive impacts of the divestment were tangibly visible in our Q1 performance: improved operative EBITDA margin and return on capital employed…

We have kept our outlook unchanged and continue to expect revenue to be between € 2,700 and €3,200 million and operative EBITDA between € 480 and € 580 million.”