Fiberweb to sell Hygiene business

Fiberweb, an international industrial fabrics producer, saw its share price leap 24% after saying that it plans to sell the majority of its Hygiene business, which would allow the firm to repay all of its existing debt.

The remaining more focused Industrial business will employ a much strengthened balance sheet to accelerate its development towards its target of becoming a leader in attractive segments of the growing markets for technical fabrics and geosynthetics.

Meanwhile, the company's trading volumes in the period were stable, though weaker than expected, for the 19 weeks to 10 November, resulting in year-to-date growth of around 2%.

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In Industrial, shipments to residential construction customers in Europe and North America were lower, impacted by weak markets, while Filtration sales have been stable.

The firm pointed out that the sharp increase in raw material prices in the first half has materially abated and average polymer prices are now close to the level seen at the start of the year, but said the full extent of the margin recovery has been limited by increases in other input costs.

The share price rose 24.07% to 50.25p from 09:57.

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