OC Oerlikon plans to separate its polymer business after 2023 downturn (updated)
20/02/2024 06:26
(Adds details on separation plan in paragraphs 2-3, sales in
5-6)
Feb 20 (Reuters) - Swiss fibre and metal coating maker
OC Oerlikon OERL.S on Tuesday said it was exploring options to
separate its polymer processing business from the group, after
2023 core earnings fell 13.4% due to a downturn in the division.
OC Oerlikon, which supplies fibres used in products such as
clothes, carpets and cars' airbags, warned several times last
year that weak filament demand from China affecting the polymer
business.
The group, which has already shrunk from five divisions in
2014 to two today, said it would need one to three years to work
out the best way to carve out the business in a drive to become
a "pure-play leader in the broad surface solutions markets".
OC Oerlikon reported annual operational earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 444 million
Swiss francs ($503 million), compared with 513 million in 2022.
Adjusted for currency exchange effects, the group's annual
sales fell 5.9% to 2.69 billion francs.
However, organic currency-adjusted sales at its surface
solutions business, which makes metal coatings used on precious
metals and NASA spacecraft, rose 7%.
($1 = 0.8828 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Louis van Boxel-Woolf and Marleen Kaesebier in
Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
((Louis.vanBoxel-Woolf@thomsonreuters.com;
marleen.kaesebier@thomsonreuters.com))