Mondi’s Merebank plant in Durban is a paper mill that produces office paper, including the premium South African brand Mondi Rotatrim.
Mondi’s interim dividend fell substantially to 9.42 euro cents per share from 23.33 euro cents at the same time last year after its sustainable packaging and paper operations experienced margin pressure from higher input costs and lower selling prices.
The UK-based, JSE- and London-listed group, which operates in about 30 countries, said Thursday first half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to €379 million, including a forestry fair value loss of €35m, compared with €564m at the same time last year, including a fair value gain of €18m.
“We made good progress in delivering actions to strengthen Mondi’s performance, cash generation, and competitiveness. We took strong pricing actions, maintained cost discipline, progressed our plant network optimisation programme, and continued to drive operational excellence across the business,” the CEO Andrew King said.
The pressure on margin was partially offset by higher sales volumes and pricing actions.
