24th Apr 2026 15:58
(Alliance News) - Mondi PLC undershot expectations after reporting a slump in profit for the first quarter of 2026, Davy Research noted on Friday.
The Irish wealth manager and bank maintained a share price target for Mondi at 1,500 pence, with an "outperform" recommendation.
In London, Mondi shares were down 9.8% at 759.40 pence, and were 8.1% lower to ZAR171.00 in Johannesburg.
The Weybridge, England-based packaging firm on Friday reported that underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, including forestry fair value, fell 27% to EUR212 million for the first quarter that ended March 31, from EUR290 million a year earlier.
It blamed lower prices and mounting costs stemming from the Middle East conflict for a sharp decline in profitability in the first quarter of 2026.
The first-quarter underlying Ebitda was 7% below the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of USD228 million, Davy Research analyst Ciaran Mulqueen said.
In a trading update on Friday, Mondi said it has experienced increased energy, raw material and logistics costs, vowing to increase prices.
But it said it expects the impact of "pricing actions" to take full effect in the third quarter of this year.
Following a recent reduction in wood prices in South Africa, Mondi said it expects the full-year forestry fair value gain for 2026 to be nil.
Mondi has closed a further three converting plants, comprising a consumer flexibles plant in Hungary and corrugated solutions plants in Poland and Germany, reducing the headcount by 450 over the course of this year.
This brings the total number of recently announced plant closures to six, Mondi said.
For the first quarter, Mondi said its corrugated packaging and flexible packaging business units increased sales volumes across its range of paper grades. "This was supported by recent capacity expansions, as well as our exposure to diversified geographies, end markets and products," it said.
But the increase in volumes was offset by lower average selling prices and higher energy-related input costs, the company said.
In the converting operations, Mondi said the performance of its corrugated solutions & paper sacks businesses was impacted by margin pressure, while consumer flexibles delivered a broadly stable performance.
By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News senior reporter South Africa
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