ASPO Plc STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE February 24, 2012, at 12:00
Based on the current situation, Aspo Plc's Board of Directors has decided to specify the full-year outlook issued in the financial statement release for January-December published on February 14, 2012.
The justifications for the outlook continue to be the same as in the release published on February 14, 2012, except that ESL Shipping Ltd will be included in tonnage taxation from January 1, 2011.
New guidance for 2012, issued on February 24, 2012:
Aspo aims for growth in net sales and operating profit, and will improve earnings per share.
Guidance for 2012 issued by Aspo Group on February 14, 2012:
"Aspo aims for growth in net sales and operating profit."
The new tonnage tax act has an essential impact on Aspo's outlook.
The Finnish Parliament approved the new tonnage tax act at the second processing on February 21, 2012. The act will take effect on March 1, 2012, and it will be applied retroactively from January 1, 2011.
Aspo's ESL Shipping Ltd has decided to be included in tonnage taxation retroactively from January 1, 2011. In tonnage taxation, shipping operations will shift from taxation of business income to tonnage-based taxation. In the first quarter of 2012, Aspo Group will rectify ESL Shipping's income tax entered in 2011 financial statements and enter the tonnage tax for 2011. Aspo Group's earnings per share for 2011 was 0.45 euros per share. As earnings per share, the tonnage tax impact for 2011 to be entered for the first quarter of 2012 is about 0.10 euros per share.
The depreciation difference of about EUR 23.3 million entered in the balance sheet of ESL Shipping Ltd will be entered in ESL Shipping's distributable capital immediately.
The depreciation difference's deferred tax, about EUR 7.6 million, in ESL Shipping's balance sheet will be entered as Aspo Group's operating profit as equal installments for 2012-2020.
The Accounting Board has been requested to submit a statement on processing tonnage tax in accounting. The statement may have an impact on the final processing of the installments in the income statement and balance sheet of both ESL Shipping Ltd and Aspo Group.
ASPO Plc
Aki Ojanen
CEO
For further information, please contact:
Aki Ojanen, CEO Aspo Plc, +358 9 521 4010, +358 400 106 592,
Arto Meitsalo, CFO, Aspo Plc, +358 9 4020
Aspo is a conglomerate that owns and develops business operations in the Baltic Sea region focusing on demanding B-to-B customers. Our strong company brands - ESL Shipping, Leipurin, Telko and Kaukomarkkinat - aim to be the market leaders in their sectors. They are responsible for their own operations, customer relationships and the development of these. Together they generate Aspo's goodwill. Aspo's Group structure and business operations are continually developed without any predefined schedules.
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www.aspo.com (http://www.aspo.com/)
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information contained therein.
Source: Aspo Oyj via Thomson Reuters ONE
