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ad-hoc disclosure pursuant to section 15 of the WpHG transmitted by euro
adhoc with the aim of a Europe-wide distribution. The issuer is solely
responsible for the content of this announcement.
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annual report/Mühlbauer further extends sales in 2011 - operating income
impacted by higher selling expenses as well as research and development expenses
- dividend payment of EUR 1.00 planned
26.04.2012
Roding, 26 April 2012 - "In the 2011 financial year, the Mühlbauer technology
group held up well overall, in view of an increasingly harsh market environment,
and succeeded in winning over further governments and government-related
institutions as a fully responsible and reliable system partner for innovative
ID applications," comments Josef Mühlbauer, the founder and personally liable
shareholder of the company.
At EUR 260.8 million (PY: EUR 301.6 million), order income was unable to attain
the level of the previous year as a result of the natural fluctuation common to
the project business and the ease in demand for semiconductor backend products
that commenced in the second half of the year. Based on the high order backlog
to the end of the previous year as well as the government projects, machine and
component orders acquired in the reporting period, Mühlbauer, however, succeeded
in further boosting sales slightly, by 3.3% against the previous year in which
it achieved an increase of almost 30%, to EUR 207.5 million. The sales of EUR
214.4 million marked a new record high in the group's history. Although the
operating income was unable to keep pace with this development, the company's
positioning on growth markets was further reinforced by massive investments in
infrastructure as well as research and development and the restructure of the
group pushed ahead in order to increase the autonomy and independence of its
business areas.
Development of sales in the business areas. At EUR 124.3 million, the sales
achieved in the core business area Cards & TECURITY® in the year under review
are 2.0% down, year-on-year (PY: EUR 126.9 million). This slight decline is due
to project-related differences with regard to the provision of services and
booking of earnings, whereby sales in the reporting period were largely fed by
the progressive implementation of government projects, which increasingly
comprise the entire process chain from data collection through to the
personalization of ID documents. Semiconductor Related Products continued the
upwards trend of the past two years. Sales were again raised by 6.6%, to EUR
62.8 million (PY: EUR 58.9 million). While sales in the year under review were
largely driven by the high level of demand for automation solutions for the
production of RFID Smart Labels and the interest for semiconductor backend
solutions, which persisted until mid-year, it is also the first time that sales
benefited from an order placed by the solar industry in the previous year. The
record year of the German mechanical engineering sector is also reflected in
Precision Parts & Systems. The high level of demand from different industries
for highly precise parts and components of high quality led to a further sales
increase of 25.8% to EUR 27.3 million, after a bold plus of 70.8% to EUR 21.7
million in the previous year.
Earnings development. While gross profit remained at virtually the same level,
at EUR 82.3 million (PY: EUR 82.4 million), the significant rise of selling
expenses as well as research and development expenses reduced EBIT by 26.4%, to
EUR 28.1 million (PY: EUR 38.2 million). With a financial result of EUR 0.3
million, earnings before tax amounted to EUR 28.4 million (PY: EUR 38.6
million), corresponding to a return on sales of 13.3% - after 18.6% in the
previous year. Taking into account a tax expense of EUR 6.4 million,
consolidated net earnings for the year dropped to EUR 22.0 million (PY: EUR 30.3
million). This corresponds to earnings per share of EUR 1.51 (PY: EUR 2.09).
Cashflow. Due to the lower net earnings for the year and the simultaneous
increase of working capital, the cashflow from operating activities decreased by
EUR 10.9 million, to EUR 37.0 million. At EUR 28.3 million (PY: EUR 27.9
million) the outflows from investment activities were EUR 0.4 million higher
year-on-year - as a result of the sustained high level of investments in respect
of the modernization and extension of the technological base. Due to this
development, the free cashflow for the year under review was significantly lower
at minus EUR 4.6 million than for the same period of the previous year (plus EUR
25.9 million). Shareholder's equity dropped from 73.5% at the end of the
previous year to 68.1% to the end of the reporting period. At the same time, net
liquidity decreased to EUR 15.2 million - from EUR 38.4 million.
Dividend proposal. This year, again, the personally liable shareholder and the
Supervisory Board want their shareholders to participate adequately in the
company's earnings and will therefore propose the payment of a dividend of EUR
1.00 (PY: EUR 1.30) per no-par value share in respect of the 2011 financial year
to the Annual General Meeting.
Outlook. The trends on the Cards & TECURITY® market, which are, on principle,
positive, still endure: The strong interest in offering both greater security
and more mobility to people will have a positive effect on the demand for
state-of-the-art technology and software solutions for the production of
safety-oriented ID systems in card and passport format - long term. The same
applies to RFID-based applications. Driven by a wealth of application benefits
that RFID tags hold against conventional barcode labels, as well as continual
cost reductions related to their production, an increasing number of companies
are following the example set by the retail giant Walmart, which holds a leading
position with regard to the use of RFID tags for the labeling of goods, and are
utilizing the contactless technology, particularly in supply chain management.
On both markets, the Mühlbauer technology group is the only system partner
worldwide who can offer the complete technology and market competence as a
one-stop provider and considers itself to be in a good strategic position to
benefit strongly from this market potential - as a result of the future-oriented
investments it made in past years. Against this background, Mühlbauer upholds
its long-term strategy of growth and is expecting to increase sales and earnings
year-on-year in 2012 and further growth for 2013. This expectation is also based
on the company's order backlog of EUR 201.4 million at the beginning of 2012.
Further inquiry note:
Herr Karl Kompe
Tel.: +49 9461 952 - 1653
E-Mail: karl.kompe@muehlbauer.de
end of announcement euro adhoc
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issuer: Mühlbauer Holding AG & Co.KGaA
Josef-Mühlbauer-Platz 1
D-93426 Roding
phone: +49(0)9461-952-1653
FAX: +49(0)9461-952-8520
mail: investor-relations@muehlbauer.de
WWW: http://www.muehlbauer.de
sector: Machine Manufacturing
ISIN: DE0006627201
indexes: CDAX, Prime All Share, Technology All Share
stockmarkets: free trade: Berlin, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart,
regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt
language: English