Recent analyst updates ahead of publication of our annual results next week seem to point to a strong close to the year. Bekaert's third quarter sales update cautioned on the fourth quarter performance as it was anticipated that the market situation for tire cord activities in China would deteriorate. This stance was reinforced by the profit warning issued by one of our competitors in China in December, a fact that was picked up by some analysts.
As cautioned, the tire cord activities in China did deteriorate towards year end 2014 and impacted our annual results on some key performance criteria compared to the most recent analyst estimates. Therefore the Company feels obliged to disclose these key indicators before the official approval by its Board of Directors and the subsequent release of our annual results on 27 February 2015. The full results will be published and commented as planned after Board approval on 27 February 2015.
2014 key financial indicators (consolidated):
In millions of euro: Sales: 3 216 ; EBITDA: 342 ; EBIT: 171
In euro: EPS: 1.51