Nexans swings to full-year profit

Cabling specialist Nexans has finished the year 2020 in black despite revenue drop of close to 9 per cent.

The company booked net income of 80 million euros in 2020, compared to a net loss of 118 million euros in 2019.

This included negative 102 million euros of estimated Covid-19 impact and the positive gains on divestments for 142 million euros.

The Group’s consolidated sales for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 closed at 5.7 billion euros at standard metal prices, compared with 6.5 billion euros in the same period of 2019, representing an organic decline of 8.6 per cent.

However, sales improved 2.3 per cent sequentially, but still down 4.5 per cent compared to fourth quarter 2019.

Despite the drop in demand EBITDA landed at 347 million euros in 2020 versus 413 million euros in 2019; representing 6.1 per cent of sales at standard metal prices.

Nexans reported outperformance in ROCE at 10.2 per cent, after previous guidance of between 7 and 10 per cent.

The company also marked a 10-year low net debt of 179 million euros at 31 December 2020.

Subsea high-voltage project execution was in line with backlog phasing and the activity benefitted from continued execution. Tendering activity was strong for Nexans as it secured several projects during the year such as Seagreen and Crete-Attica.

Adjusted backlog landed at 1.4 billion euros at the end of December, with a 24-month visibility.

The company said it expects 2021 EBITDA between 410 and 450 million euros.

Its cable laying vessel Aurora and US High-Voltage cable plant Charleston should also be operational mid-2021.

Christopher Guérin, Nexans CEO, stated:

“ Despite the unprecedented global health and economic crisis, 2020 was a tipping point for Nexans, as we demonstrated our ability to accelerate the company’s transformation, outperforming our financial performance both in ROCE and free cash flow, resulting in a 10-year low net debt.

“Our efforts, in the second semester, were focused on our long-term ambition, defining our new purpose to “Electrify the future”, our new values, our new ESG & Carbon neutrality commitment.

“It’s full steam ahead that we will announce today our new strategic chapter up to 2024, and 2021 will be a year of acceleration of our new strategic moves on Electrification. Nexans is starting 2021 confident and with ambitious goals.”