Ljubljana, 19 March 2015
With the payments made today, SIJ – Slovenska industrija jekla, d. d., has successfully completed the process of the first issue of commercial papers, the interest in which has exceeded both the final and the target value of the issue by 60%, i.e. EUR 20 million. These are nine-month commercial papers with a 2.20% annual interest rate. The considerable interest of both institutional and private investors, which has significantly exceeded the target value, clearly indicates trust in the competitiveness of the business operations of the SIJ Group, and the successful continuation of the implementation of the development strategy of the Group by 2020.
The aim of issuing commercial papers is to disperse current resources and to optimize financing costs, as well as to continue implementing the long-term strategy of dispersing the financial resources of the SIJ Group. With regard to this strategy the Group already issued five-year bonds with a face value of EUR 43 million in November 2014. It is worth pointing out that at the end of 2014 the share of current financing resources of net financial debt (NFD) of the Group was only 16%. These are the resources which are used by the Group to manage seasonal movements of working capital.
»The issuing of commercial papers is the expected second step in the direction of the development of SIJ d.d. as a public limited company. We are more than satisfied with this process, since investors have shown great interest and trust in the Group. We will continue to actively monitor the conditions and will finance our company through financial instruments on the local as well as on the international capital markets in the future,” stressed the President of the Board of Directors of the SIJ Group, Anton Chernykh.
All the activities related to the organization of the sale and issue of commercial papers were carried out by NLB, d. d. Dematerialized commercial papers are registered in the KDD’s central registry under the codes SIK01 and ISIN SI0032501197. The commercial papers will be listed on the regulated market of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
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According to the first non-audited consolidated data, the SIJ Group generated an income of EUR 707.8 million in 2014, which represents a 7% increase compared to 2013. At the same time profitability increased significantly, since the operating profit before amortization (EBITDA) increased by 91% and reached EUR 77.8 million. This achieved EBITDA margin of 11% puts the SIJ Group among the most successful steel groups in 2014. The estimated operating profit (EBIT) amounted to EUR 39.6 million and increased by a factor of 18 compared to 2013, while the net profit reached just under EUR 25 million.
More info:
Dr. Denis Mancevič, Director for Corporate Communications
E-mail: denis.mancevic@sij.si