LUXEMBOURG — Orion Engineered Carbons SA has completed its initial public offering and released its financial results for the first half of fiscal 2014, reporting a 2-percent increase in sales volume by tonnage but a slight decline in terms of sales.
Sales dropped 2.7 percent to about $442.8 million in the second quarter 2013. For the half-year, the firm's sales fell 2.9 percent to $871.7 million.
The firm reported a net loss at about $8.3 million for the quarter and $8.82 million for the first six months, which the firm attributed to one-time IPO and pre-refinancing interest costs.
Orion successfully completed its IPO of 19.5 million of its common shares at the price of $18 per share. The firm said there are 59.6 million common shares outstanding post IPO, sold by Kinove Luxembourg Holdings 1 Sarl, the majority shareholder in the company.
The firm did not receive any proceeds from the offering, rather utilized the IPO to repay a shareholder loan in full. That loan amounted to about 200 million Euros, which is about $267.6 million converted using current exchange rates. The IPO will allow Orion to refinance its debt down from more than 10 percent to about 4-5 percent.
“We were pleased with our second quarter results as we grew our sales volume and improved our contribution margin, which enabled the company to deliver solid adjusted EBITDA growth of over 8 percent,” CEO Jack Clem said in a statement.
Sales for Orion's specialty carbon black segment increased by 1.9 percent in the second quarter to about $134.4 million. However its rubber carbon black segment's sales decreased by 4.5 percent to $308.4 million. The firm cited decreased carbon black oil prices impacted by exchange rates on selling price.
Orion Engineered Carbons is a worldwide supplier of carbon black, offering standard and high performance products for coatings, printing inks, polymers, rubber and other applications. The firm employs 1,360 worldwide.
