“Additionally, we disposed of Nijmegen Mill in order to reduce costs, and sold our Usutu forests which were surplus to requirements, to assist with reducing net debt. The North American business had a challenging year; however, we can already see advancement in that business and expect further improvement in the year ahead”, commented Sappi CEO Steve Binnie. “The European business saw an encouraging improvement in margin in this seasonally better quarter, achieving an EBITDA excluding special items margin of more than 10% for the first time since 2012.”

The group’s EBITDA excluding special items for the full year increased by 25% over the prior year. The group continued the strong progress made throughout 2014 and delivered a 29% rise in EBITDA excluding special items compared with the equivalent quarter last year.

“Based on current market conditions, we believe that EBITDA excluding special items in the 2015 financial year will be broadly similar to that of 2014”, Binnie went on. However: “The first quarter result will be negatively impacted by the Gratkorn PM11 upgrade project, resulting in three weeks of downtime for the paper machine. The results will be further impacted by the extended annual maintenance outage and the finalisation of the natural gas conversion project at Somerset Mill in the US.”