Klabin should spend the next two years in cash generation mode to reduce its debt, taking advantage of investments made in recent years in expanding paper and cellulose capacity, said the company’s executive president, Cristiano Teixeira, this Tuesday. fair (5).
The strategy will be pursued despite possible acquisition opportunities, notably in soft fiber for cellulose production fluffaccording to the executive’s comments made during the presentation of Klabin’s results for the third quarter, released the day before.
“It is a market that we are betting on in the medium term”, said Teixeira when referring to fluff cellulose. “Klabin’s next investment should come from this product… Global producers have had great difficulty generating cash and Klabin is paying attention to this and has been preparing in Santa Catarina for future investments,” stated the executive.
But, given the strategy of reducing debt, “this does not change the deleveraging trajectory at all. Over the next two years, we will deleverage, generate cash and only then make any proposals to the board,” said Teixeira.
Klabin ended September with a leverage of 3.9 times in dollars, compared to 3.2 times in the second quarter and in the same period of 2023. The company’s net debt totaled 29.5 billion reais.
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Asked about possible share buybacks, the executive stated that the matter “is always on Klabin’s radar”, but did not elaborate.
The company announced the day before that it approved 425 million reais in payment of interest on equity to shareholders.
Mercado
Klabin reported this Tuesday (5) its trend expectations for the fourth quarter compared to the period from July to September, indicating that demand for paper and cellulose should remain close to what the company calls “neutrality”, while prices signal stability in most of the segments in which it operates.
The company indicated in a presentation to the market that demand for short fiber pulp has a slightly positive trend, while prices show a clear negative sign for the coming months.
In long fiber and fluff cellulose, used in sanitary products such as diapers, the company sees a slightly better trend in terms of demand, with prices at neutrality, but under pressure.
Klabin assesses that future demand in the paperboard market is stable and prices are also trending towards normality, with a slight upward trend. In the corrugated cardboard segment, the company’s expectations are slightly positive for demand and relatively stable prices.
But in kraftliner, the company sees a positive price trend.
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Klabin’s packaging director, Douglas Dalmasi, commented that the company expects an improvement in prices in the fourth quarter compared to the third after readjusting the product by 10% in October and forecasting another 10% increase in December in the domestic market.
“In the first quarter of 2025, prices will be corrected and discounts will be eliminated,” said the executive.
