Domtar Reports Preliminary Q4 Results, Highlights 'Earnings Improvement'

Domtar Corp (USA) (NYSE: UFS) reported its preliminary fourth quarter results Friday morning. The company expects to earn $0.91 per share on revenue of $1.314 billion while Wall Street analysts were estimating the company to earn $0.80 per share on revenue of $1.33 billion.

Domtar's stock showed no trades early Friday morning.

EBITDA for the quarter rose to $203 million from $183 million in the same quarter a year ago, partially due to its paper shipments having risen 2.3 percent from the prior quarter.

Domtar's added that in the fourth quarter it saw a closure and restructuring cost of $1 million and an impairment of property, plant & equipment cost of $20 million ($12 million after taxes).

Net earnings for the full fiscal year fell to $142 million from $431 million in the prior year. Sales for the year totaled $5.3 billion, marking a decrease from $5.563 billion in the prior year.

"We had our best EBITDA performance of 2015 despite the impact of lower prices. Our pulp and paper shipments were strong, and our operations ran exceptionally well with productivity gains across the mill system," said John D. Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our average production costs continue to trend lower as we focus on taking measures to run our assets more efficiently and improve our manufacturing processes."