The Navigator Company profits fall 25% to €48.3 million in 1Q

Portugal’s paper producer The Navigator Company saw profits tumble by 25% to post a net result of €48.3 million.

In the first quarter of 2024 the company had made a net profit of €64 million. Revenues and EBITDA was also down with the papermaker under pressure from “a significant slowdown in the economic activity in its main markets.

Sales stood at €529 million, slightly below the €536 million for the like-for-like period. The company’s EBITDA was down 13.3% to €115.6 million for the quarter according to a communiqué sent by the company to the Portuguese securities regulator CMVM this week.

“The first quarter of 2025 was marked by the rapid worsening of geopolitical uncertainty and growing trade tensions resulting in increased protectionism and a significant slowdown in economic activity in Navigator’s main markets,” the company explained in its earnings release.

The Navigator Company states that “despite this adverse context, Navigator saw a positive trend on the previous quarter, with better levels of sales and a buoyant rate of orders coming in for printing and writing paper, packaging cardboard and tissue paper that contrasted with a fall in the benchmark index for printing and writing paper”.

The amount of sales of paper and packaging reached €323,000, up 17% on the previous quarter but 8% down on the like-for-like period in 2024, while sales grew 7% compared to 4Q 2024 and a fall of 14% on 1Q 2024.

Sales of Navigator paper paste stood at around 100,000 tonnes, which “represents a fall of 12% compared to the last quarter of 2024 and 9% like-for-like on 1Q 2024.

The company closed the first quarter with a net debt of €660 million, an increase of €43 million compared to December.