Aspo Capital Markets Day

Aspo to increase its minimum objective for operating profit and make business-specific investments in growth

ASPO PLC     STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE      November 26, 2015, at 08:15 a.m.

Aspo Capital Markets Day: Aspo to increase its minimum objective for operating profit and make business-specific investments in growth

As announced previously, Aspo Group will today, on November 26, 2015, starting at 9:00 a.m., be holding a Capital Markets Day in Helsinki. At the event, the management of Aspo will present the company's strategy and the development phases of its business operations. In addition, the management of Aspo's business operations will present the strategy of each business and their position in their various market areas. Finnish presentation material will be available today at 9:00 a.m. on the company's website at www.aspo.com.

Aspo will revise its financial objectives. With the current structure, the company is looking for an operating profit rate of 7 percent. The previous target was to reach an operating profit rate that would be closer to 10 percent than 5 percent. Other financial objectives, i.e. an average return on equity of over 20 percent and gearing of up to 100 percent, will remain unchanged.

Aspo Group's strategy will not be changed. The key strengths of the strategy are diversity, operating in eastern growth markets and the ability to implement structural changes. Aspo will keep its dividend distribution policy unchanged and, on average, will distribute at least half of the annual profit in dividends.

The guidance for 2015 repeated in the January-September interim report will remain unchanged. Aspo's result will increase from 2014 or remain at the same level.

New multi-year contract with SSAB enables investments in the world's first LNG-fueled large bulk carriers

ESL Shipping, a carrier of dry bulk cargo, and the steel producer SSAB have signed a long-term frame contract on the sea transportation of SSAB's incoming raw materials in the Baltic Sea and from the North Sea. The current total sea transportation volume within the scope of the contract is estimated to be six to seven million tons a year. 

As a result of the contract, ESL Shipping has designed and ordered the world's first large bulk carriers fueled by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The new vessels are the most effective in the world in terms of energy consumption and technology. This investment raises the global dry cargo sea transportation capacity to a whole new sustainable level when it comes to environmental impact. CO₂ emissions per transported ton of cargo will decrease by more than 50 percent compared with the current technology. The two ice-reinforced dry cargo vessels of 25,600 DWT have been designed in Finland by Deltamarin Ltd and will be built in China at Sinotrans & CSC Qingshan Shipyard. The vessels will start operating in the Baltic Sea in early 2018. The total value of the investment is approximately EUR 60 million. The investment cash flow will be divided progressively between 2015 and 2018.