Kingspan Group plc Reports Full-Year 2021 Results

Kingspan, the global leader in high-performance insulation and building envelope solutions, reports its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2021.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue up 42% to €6.5bn, (pre-currency, up 42%).
• Trading profit up 49% to €755m, (pre-currency, up 49%).
• Acquisitions contributed 12% to sales growth and 11% to trading profit growth in the year.
• Group trading margin of 11.6%, an increase of 50bps.
• Basic EPS up 48% to 305.6 cent.
• Final dividend per share of 26.0 cent giving a total dividend for the year of 45.9 cent.
• Year end net debt1 of €756.1m (2020: €236.2m). Net debt4 to EBITDA4 of 0.88x (2020: 0.4x).
• ROCE of 19.5% (2020: 18.4%).

Operational Summary

• Unprecedented raw material inflation with strong price recovery effort.
• Strong underlying volume growth of 13% and 11% in Insulated Panels and Insulation respectively.
• Insulated Panels sales increase of 45% driven by strong momentum generally in construction activity, raw material led price growth further enhanced by strong demand in high growth sectors. Year end order backlog volume 28% ahead of the same point in 2020. 66% growth in sales value of QuadCoreTM.
• Insulation sales increase of 50% reflecting strong demand in key markets and inflation recovery on pricing. Strong development activity during the year including acquisition of Logstor, a leading global supplier of technical insulation solutions.
• Light & Air sales growth of 24% reflecting the acquisition of Colt Group in Q2 2020 and the acquisition of Skydome in 2021. Strong backlog at year end.
• Water & Energy sales increase of 29% reflecting a strong performance across all key markets, with the exception of Australasia.
• Data & Flooring sales growth of 21% reflecting strong datacentre activity and ongoing development of the European operations.
• Invested a total of €714m in acquisitions, capex and financial investments during the period.
• Since period end, approximately €800m committed on three transactions subject to customary approvals.

Gene M. Murtagh, Chief Executive Officer of Kingspan commented:

“The business delivered an exceptional performance last year, with our growing sales to customers in the technology, online distribution, and automotive sectors instrumental in the results. Whilst dramatic input price inflation was a major feature, our cost recovery efforts helped ensure continued margin improvement.

We continue to drive expansion through acquisition, with over half a billion euro invested in buying new businesses during the year. This was complemented by our organic growth activity as we opened 5 new manufacturing facilities or production lines this year, and plan for a further 25 over the next four years. Since year end we have committed a further €800m on three transactions, subject to customary approval, that create exciting new global platforms for further development.

We have made good progress on our Planet Passionate targets, achieving an absolute reduction in Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions for the second year of the programme, with a 4.3% reduction achieved this year. We will also implement a €70 per tonne internal carbon charge from 2023 to accelerate the pace of decarbonisation across our global business.

Despite a slower fourth quarter, with a large order backlog we are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for this year, whilst mindful of the high bar in comparison with last year’s performance. High energy costs and supply threats around the world are a catalyst for a focus on conservation measures, which is likely to accelerate the demand for lower energy solutions which we believe will be supportive of demand for our products.”

Business Review

2021 was a year marked by extraordinary volatility in supply chains and wider society. Whilst this dynamic created significant challenges to our business, and indeed our industry, underlying demand remained strong through the year, albeit somewhat weaker in quarter four. Our key raw materials also saw dramatic price inflation, and in all, in the region of €700m of cost increases were required to be passed through to market. The result of all of this was a record performance by the Group with revenue growing by 42% to €6.5bn, and trading profit growth of 49% to €755m. Basic EPS grew by 48%.

Activity was strong across most of our markets in both residential and industrial construction, newbuild and RMI. Order intake trends displayed in the first half eased off over the course of the second half. That said, the Insulated Panels global order backlog finished the year ahead by 28% in volume. North and South America, France and Britain were particular stand-out positives. The Group’s growing presence in the tech, online distribution and automotive segments was instrumental in delivering this performance.

The demand for significantly more efficient materials and methods of construction is clearly gaining much needed momentum and, with the prevailing energy cost and supply threats around the world, it is likely that the drive toward conservation will be accelerated.

Planet Passionate

2021 was the second year of our ambitious ten-year programme to further boost the environmental ethos of Kingspan. This builds upon the foundations laid over our previous ten-year Net Zero Energy programme that completed successfully in 2020. The current programme encompasses stretching goals across twelve targets (see below).

We have recently announced revised 1.5°C aligned science-based targets bringing them in line with our Planet Passionate programme goals to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Group has now committed to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 90% by 2030 from a 2020 base year. It has also pledged to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 42% within the same timeframe. We will also implement a €70 per tonne internal carbon charge from 2023 which will galvanise full alignment across the organisation.

Expansion

Over the course of the year we invested a total of €714m on acquisitions, capex and financial investments. The largest of these was Logstor Group, a European based provider of highly insulated district heating infrastructure, acquired in June 2021 for €245m. The acquisition of Romania based TeraSteel also completed in the period. Additionally, we entered the Uruguay Insulated Panel market with the acquisition of 51% of Bromyros, and enhanced our insulation channel in Australia and New Zealand with the acquisition of Thermakraft. We also became a founding investor in the ground breaking H2 Green Steel in Sweden that aims to become the world’s first zero carbon steel facility. In the second half of 2021 we acquired California based Solatube International, an exciting bolt-on to our North American Light & Air offering.

Organically, we commissioned 5 new manufacturing facilities or lines across the globe in 2021, enabling the ongoing conversion to high-performance materials. We have plans for approximately 25 new manufacturing facilities or lines over the next four years to support the growth of our full spectrum of building envelope solutions.

Acquisitions After Year End

Following year end we have reached agreement to acquire Ondura Group (‘Ondura’) from Naxicap. Ondura, headquartered in France, is a leading global provider of roofing membranes and associated roofing solutions with 14 manufacturing sites and a distribution network in 100 countries worldwide. The business recorded sales in 2021 of €424m with EBITDA of €63m. The consideration is €550m payable in cash on completion and conditional on obtaining customary approvals. The acquisition of Ondura is fully aligned with Kingspan’s long stated strategy to develop multiple technologies in roofing applications and will serve as our global platform for advancing these solutions.

We have also reached agreement, subject to customary approvals, to acquire Troldtekt, a leading Danish headquartered manufacturer of natural low carbon acoustic insulation. In addition we have acquired THU Perfil, an architectural and ceilings solutions business in Spain.

Innovation

PowerPanelTM (an engineered combination of QuadCoreTM insulated panel and solar PV) development completed during the period and a large scale project on an in-house roof was completed in quarter three. This is now fully operational with real time energy monitoring underway. The approval process is nearing completion which should pave the way for a full scale market launch during quarter two, in Britain and Ireland initially. We are also fine-tuning our RooftricityTM proposition, a funded solution whereby the customer outlay for a re-roof or newbuild incorporating PowerPanelTM will be minimal. Encouragingly, the soft launch project pipeline is ahead of our expectations.

QuadCoreTM 2.0 is also progressing and in a coldstore application, the product reached a 120 minute fire rating, which is a dramatic leap forward and will in many cases match if not exceed the performance of synthetic mineral fibre cored products. QuadCoreTM sales value grew by 66% globally in 2021.

The team at our IKON Innovation Hub has also developed a low carbon insulated panel in collaboration with our suppliers. This is a prime example of how our Planet Passionate agenda is translating into market leading, sustainable products. Initial testing suggests the development panel will have c.25% less embodied carbon and contain upwards of 45% recycled content.

In addition, projects are underway to achieve an ‘A’ classification for Optim-R®, AlphaCore®, and ‘B’ classification for key Kooltherm® applications. Significant progress is also being made on entering the ‘natural’ insulation category.

Product Integrity

The Group’s product integrity audit and compliance programme is extensive. Over the course of the year, 576 third party external product and system audits took place. A further 90 manufacturing sites were internally audited under the process overseen by the Audit & Compliance Committee of the Group’s Board.

ISO37301 is the leading global standard for establishing, developing and monitoring compliance systems. We have embarked on a programme of widespread adoption of this standard across the Group and during 2021, the standard’s first year of implementation, 9 manufacturing facilities across Kingspan achieved it. During 2022, we anticipate adding another 25 locations, including the Kingscourt Insulated Panels facility which will be the first of its kind in Europe. Two of our US plants in Modesto and Deland were fully approved in 2021 making them joint first in the world.

Insulated Panels

Activity was particularly strong throughout the year in our largest segment. Sales volumes reached a record at almost 80 million m2, order intake by volume was up by 20% and the volume backlog ended the year ahead by 28%. QuadCoreTM comprised 16% of global insulated panel order intake value and we again expect that to increase in the year ahead.

Non-residential newbuild construction has been buoyant in many of our key markets, and coupled with our growing segmental exposure to high growth end markets combined to deliver a record year. Raw material expectations were instrumental in driving demand early in the year and as inflation topped out, so too did order intake leading to a reduction in backlog, albeit finishing the year comfortably ahead of prior year.

Raw material movements for 2022 are unclear and we will respond appropriately with pricing of our own products in the event of any significant movement.

The organic volume expansion we are experiencing necessitates a number of new greenfield facilities across the world. These expansion projects are, or will be shortly, underway in France, Romania, the US, Brazil, Vietnam and Australia.

Insulation

Sales volumes in the first half of the year were particularly healthy, easing back somewhat in the latter half as the distribution network began to unwind high inventories accumulated during the period of rising prices earlier in the year. In total, volume for the year was ahead by 11% accounting to just over 70 million m2 of deliveries globally. Kooltherm® volume was modestly ahead for the full year. Industrial insulation sales, including applications like pipe, ducting and district heating/cooling were in the region of €300m for the full year, including €150m from the acquisition of Logstor in the second half. We believe industrial applications are a real opportunity for significant growth potential over the longer term.

To support future organic growth we are either underway with, or planning, new facilities for Optim-R® in the US, PIR board in France, industrial pipe insulation in the Benelux, PIR board in Saudi Arabia and are carrying out a viability assessment for a district heating pipe insulation plant in either Britain or Ireland. Conversion of waste heat from manufacturing and data warehousing processes will increasingly be captured and re-distributed through such infrastructure.

We are relentless in our commitment to offer an unparalleled spectrum of insulation solutions. In addition to the technologies referred to in the innovation section, early feasibility work has begun on entering the production of stone wool to support our existing and future requirement of that material.

Light & Air

This relatively new segment for the Group has been evolving rapidly with global revenue for the year of €552.2m. Organic growth in 2021 amounted to a modest 1%, and the contribution of the Colt acquisition in 2020 delivered €178m revenue in 2021. The recovery of cost inflation has been slower than expected owing to the long contract lead time with customers. Recovery is now well underway and should deliver a positive margin evolution during 2022.

France and Germany were both strong performers whilst the US slipped back a little against very strong project comparatives in 2020.

In addition to bedding down the Colt acquisition, a number of bolt-ons were added during 2021 including Solatube International and Major Industries in the US. The former creates a wider global opportunity for the transmission of natural light into buildings via tubular daylighting systems, whilst Major Industries adds to our existing range of architectural wall daylighting solutions.

Water & Energy

This division delivered a good performance despite the headwinds presented by market constraints evident in Australia.

The focus of this business unit is water related storage, heating, treatment and harvesting solutions all of which present attractive opportunities across the world. The business has focused to date on Europe and Australia and the Americas is a real development opportunity and will therefore become a region of growing focus.

Separately, a product development initiative on hydrogen storage for the transportation sector is underway and expected to be an interesting opportunity over the longer term.

Data & Flooring

This business unit offers solutions to both office flooring and multiple data centre offerings, primarily designed to conserve the use of power in the storage and management of data. Whilst the office sector has been comparatively subdued, data applications are expanding apace worldwide. Our aim is to partner with the leading global providers in helping optimise energy consumption and related emissions.

For the complete press release, click here.

Contact:

Douglas Keatinge – Murray Consultants – +353 1 4980300

Source: Kingspan Group plc