February 09, 2017

Yara kicking off Improvement Program at 4th Quarter Presentation

Yara delivered weaker fourth-quarter results compared with a year earlier. EBITDA excluding special items was 29% lower, as higher deliveries and lower energy costs were more than offset by lower fertilizer prices. Yara’s board will propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend payment of NOK 10 per share for 2016.

Operational performance improved

“Yara reports a weaker result than a year earlier, reflecting lower fertilizer prices as the global nitrogen price floor was tested during the quarter. But our operational performance improved significantly, with fertilizer sales and production up 15% and 11% respectively,” said Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara.

“The whole Yara organization is working hard to further improve operations, to deliver on the Yara improvement program which we have announced earlier. The program has already delivered approximately USD 25 million of EBITDA improvement in 2016, and will deliver at least USD 500 million of annual EBITDA improvement within 2020,” said Holsether.

Making Yara fit for the future

As communicated earlier, Yara has established a corporate program to drive and coordinate existing and new improvement initiatives. The Yara Improvement program will deliver at least USD 500 million of annual EBITDA improvement by 2020, of which an estimated USD 150 million will be realized in 2017.

Yara is executing significant expansion activity, and based on today’s market prices these are expected to generate approximately NOK 6 per share of incremental earnings by 2020 when fully operational.

The Yara Improvement program is engineered for bottom line growth through a mix of internal initiatives addressing procurement, productivity & operations optimization combined with sales channel & customer enhancement.

The aim is to make Yara fit for the future & positioned for sustainable growth by delivering at least $500MM EBITDA in cost and operational improvements by 2020, plus cash effects and added value through the development of sales & marketing channels. Through this initiative, the company will strengthen its current market leadership positions in production, crop nutrition and environmental solutions while managing increasing technology impact, sales channel disruption and demands of social responsibility.