Nilfisk Q2 Interim Report 2018: A strong quarter marked by organic growth of 5.8%, unbroken gross margin improvement and a robust operating performance of 12.5%

Company announcement
August 14, 2018
Announcement No. 15

Nilfisk, a leading provider of professional cleaning products and services, is announcing its results for Q2 2018.

Highlights for Q2 2018

• In Q2 2018, Nilfisk delivered a strong financial performance with organic growth of 5.8% for the total business and a robust operating performance of 12.5%, measured on EBITDA before special items excluding impact from phantom shares
   
• Total revenue amounted to 284.5 mEUR driven by a positive development in four out of five operating segments
   
• Strong growth rates in EMEA with organic growth of 4.8% and in Specialty Professional and Specialty Consumer with double-digit growth of 18.7% and 14.3% respectively. After a challenging Q1, Americas saw a flat development in organic growth
   
• In Q2, the gross margin was 42.8%, up 0.4 percentage point from the previous quarter. This represents an unbroken improvement over the previous quarters, driven by the professional business across all regions, along with a continued positive impact from the cost saving program
   
• EBITDA before special items totaled 34.9 mEUR, up 4.4 mEUR from the previous quarter, leading to an EBITDA margin before special items of 12.3% including impact from phantom shares  
   
• For the first six months of 2018 total revenue was 542.0 mEUR, leading to a satisfactory organic growth of 3.6% for H1 2018 and an EBITDA margin before special items of 12.1%. Excluding impact from phantom shares, the operating performance for H1 2018 was 11.5%
   
• The 2018 outlook is unchanged. Organic growth is expected in the range of 3.0%-4.0% and EBITDA margin before special items is expected in the range of 11.5%-12.0%

CEO comment
 
Commenting on the results, Hans Henrik Lund, CEO of Nilfisk, says:

"In Q2 we have made solid progress on our strategic objectives to both simplify and grow the company. We demonstrated a strong financial performance with organic growth of 5.8% stemming from positive developments in four out of our five operating segments. Our gross margin is up for the past consecutive quarters, positively impacting our operating performance which is at a strong 12.5 % for the quarter. This leaves us confident in the underlying performance of the business and our full year guidance.”

Conference call

Nilfisk will host a conference call today at 10:00 CET. Please visit investor.nilfisk.com to access the call. Presentation materials will be available on the website prior to the conference call.

To dial in
Denmark: +45 3515 8121
UK: +44 (0)330 336 9411
US: +1 929-477-0448

Conference ID: 9279809
Link to webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/b2ydfido   

Contact

Investor Relations
Henrik Mølgaard
Head of Investor Relations
T: +45 2046 4948

Media Relations
Louise Refsgaard Klinge
Global Media Relations
T: +45 2067 0833

Attachments

• Nilfisk Q2 Interim Report 2018
• 15 Announcement_14082018_Nilfisk Q2 Interim Report 2018