Date: 29 October 2005
Consolidated sales rose 6.1 percent YoY. Excluding divestitures of Vitro American National Can (VANCAN) in September 2004 and Plasticos Bosco (Bosco) in April 2005, consolidated sales rose by 9.5 percent during the same period. Consolidated EBITDA rose 9.0 percent, resulting in a margin increase of 0.4 percentage points to 16.1 percent. On a comparable basis, consolidated EBITDA rose 11 percent. Comparable EBITDA rose 33.3 percent at Glass Containers and fell 14.8 percent at Flat Glass and 9 percent at Glassware.
Alvaro Rodriguez, Chief Financial Officer, commented: "This was a very good quarter, with YoY growth in both sales and EBITDA. In fact, we posted record comparable consolidated sales of US$624 million. Glass Containers continues to outperform, with sales of US$281 million and EBITDA of US$63 million, both figures the highest for the division in the Company's history."
"Flat Glass turned in strong QoQ results, with EBITDA up 30 percent. We believe that the worse is behind us and Flat Glass has begun to turn around. We are now seeing the initial success of our plan to improve profitability."
"Natural gas is still a critical issue that is impacting a lot of companies worldwide, including glass companies. As a result, we continue to focus on maintaining a strict cost management across our business. In fact, in 3Q05 as a result of the steps that we have taken, SG&A as a percentage of sales fell by 1.1 percent year-over-year on a comparable basis."
"We are moving ahead with our strategic plan aimed at significantly reducing Holding Company debt and continue to make progress. On September 26, we announced the successful closing of two Credit Facilities for US$150 million with an eighteen month maturity. This was the first step of the plan, which provided the immediate liquidity required to continue with the evaluation and further implementation of our strategic plan. On October 11, we offered for sale two buildings and land belonging to our corporate headquarters. Keep in mind that these are just the first steps of our plan. This quarter we reduced debt at the Holding Company by US$55 million to US$454 million from US$509 million in 2Q05, and we are fully focused on reaching our objective of significantly reducing Holding Company debt."
All figures provided in this announcement are in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in Mexico, except otherwise indicated. Dollar figures are in nominal US dollars and are obtained by dividing nominal pesos for month by the end of month fix exchange rate published by Banco de Mexico. In the case of the Balance Sheet, US dollar translations are made at the fix exchange rate as of the end of the period. Certain amounts may not sum due to rounding. All figures and comparisons are in USD terms, unless otherwise stated, and may differ from the peso amounts due to the difference between inflation and exchange rates.
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