16 April 1998: At its meeting on 8 April 1998, the Board of Directors of Belgium“s Glaverbel approved the company accounts and the consolidated accounts of the group for the financial year 1997, for …
16 April 1998: At its meeting on 8 April 1998, the Board of Directors of Belgium“s Glaverbel approved the company accounts and the consolidated accounts of the group for the financial year 1997, for submission to the AGM of 27 May. The Glaverbel group closed the 1997 financial year with a consolidated gross current result of BFr 2,214 million, an increase of 54%. The company said the increase was mainly produced by the significant growth in the operating result. The net result amounted to BFr 1,305 million, while the extraordinary losses of BFr 493 million were because of the closure of two subsidiaries in France and one in Germany, all of which were heavily loss-making, the company said. “Given the improvement in performance and the prospects for growth in results, the Board will propose at the AGM to raise the dividend by 10%, yielding a gross dividend per share of BFr 124,” the company stated in a recent press release. During the first quarter of 1998, the group achieved sales of around BFr 10.7 billion, an increase of 5% compared with the previous year. The growth, the company said, was due to the greater production capacity available, as well as the technical performance achieved by the float glass activities and the growth in shipments by most of the processing activities. Architectural glass benefited from the favourable weather conditions, while automotive glass was boosted by rising vehicle production in western Europe. The company said it is optimistic about the growth in sales for the rest of this year.