Regulatory
Press release
11 Feb 2010, 11:00 CET

Year-end report January-December 2009

Submitted for publication on 11 February 2010 at 11.00 CET (Tables included in attached PDF) Full-year 2009 compared with same period in 2008 • Net sales totalled SEK 7 760 million (7 792). • Net profit amounted to SEK 165 million (152). • Earnings per share amounted to SEK 2.04 (2.07). • Operating profit amounted to SEK 300 million (289), which corresponded to a margin of 4% (4). • Completed rights issue provided Billerud with SEK 925 million after issue costs. October-December 2009 compared with July-September 2009 • Net sales totalled SEK 2 060 million (1 893). • Net profit amounted to SEK 160 million (36), an improvement of SEK 124 million. • Operating profit amounted to SEK 231 million (64), an improvement of SEK 167 million, mainly due to improved prices, lower costs for input materials and positive currency effects. • Strong order bookings continued in the fourth quarter. Proposed dividend • The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 0.50 (0) per share for 2009. Outlook for the full-year 2010 • 2010 started with continued good demand within all segments. • Price increases have been implemented within all product areas and efforts to restore prices from the low levels of 2009 will continue in 2010. • Cost savings of SEK 250 million have been achieved and there will be a continued focus on costs during 2010. Billerud’s CEO Per Lindberg and CFO Bertil Carlsén will present the year-end report at a press conference on 11 February 2010 at 14.00 CET. Venue: Summit, Grev Turegatan 30, Stockholm. Comments by Billerud CEO Per Lindberg: Stronger performance on all fronts “We improved our performance on all fronts during the fourth quarter. We increased our operating profit to SEK 231 million, which represents an improvement of SEK 167 million compared with the third quarter. This corresponds to an increase in the operating margin of 8 percentage points, from 3% to 11%. Packaging paper continued to deliver stable earnings and at the same time, after six quarters of negative earnings, we could finally report a return to profit for the Market Pulp business area. We can thus look back on a challenging year in 2009, when we had to handle a recession, financial crisis and falling demand. We did succeed, however, in dealing with this development which means that taken overall I am very pleased with the year. As a result of hard work with cost-cutting measures and intensive sales efforts we succeeded in delivering an operating profit for 2009 of SEK 300 million which is an improvement over the previous year. We strengthened Billerud’s balance sheet during the year, partly through a successful rights issue, and partly through a strengthened cash flow. Our packaging expertise was further improved and this led to a number of newly developed products. My assessment is that we are entering 2010 as a stronger company.”