Celanese cuts debt by $200 million in 2014, ends year with record cash flow of $962 million

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 23 – Celanese Corp. generated record adjusted earnings of $1.28 per share in the fourth quarter, a 23% improvement over the prior year, said chairman and chief executive officer Mark Rohr.

The company held its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings conference call on Friday.

“Our strong finish to the year provided another quarter of solid cash flow with operating cash flow of $166 million,” according to senior vice president of finance Chris Jensen.

“We finished the year with record operating cash flow and adjusted free cash flow of $962 million and $553 million, respectively, and deployed this cash to improve our credit profile and balance sheet,” he said.

The company reduced total debt by more than $200 million which should lower annual interest expense by about $30 million. Long-term debt totaled $2.61 billion and cash at year end totaled about $800 million.

During 2014, Celanese issued €300 million of 3.25% senior unsecured notes maturing in 2019. Proceeds, plus cash on hand, were used to redeem $600 million of 6 5/8% senior unsecured notes, according to the earnings presentation.

Additionally, Celanese extended maturity of 96% of its term loans and entire revolving credit facility to October 2018 and increased the size of its revolving credit facility to $900 million.

For the year, Celanese distributed $144 million of dividends and spent $250 million to repurchase 4.3 million shares. At year-end, the company had $451 million remaining on its share repurchase authorization.

“We are well positioned to continue to be productive with our balance sheet in 2015,” Jensen said. “We continue to expect to deleverage the balance sheet, be opportunistic with share repurchases and invest in growth opportunities, including M&A.”

Celanese is a Dallas-based producer of specialty and intermediate chemical products.

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