EANS-News: Höft & Wessel AG affirms positive forecast for 2010
Hanover/Germany, 6 May 2010. (euro adhoc) -
First quarter weaker year-on-year, as expected
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quarterly report
Subtitle: First quarter weaker year-on-year, as expected
Gratifying volume of new orders in hand
The Hoeft & Wessel Group affirms its positive forecast despite the expected weak first-quarter performance. The IT hardware and software specialist for ticketing, parking facilities and mobile solutions anticipates a slight increase both in sales revenues and in its operating result for the year 2010.
In the first quarter, the Company generated sales revenues of EUR 15.9 million. In the same period a year earlier, due to temporary special effect the Company's sales revenues had turned out exceptionally high at EUR 24.5 million.
The operating result (EBIT) turned out negative, with -EUR 1.6 million being recorded as at 31 March 2010 (2009: EUR 0.2 million). In contrast, the operational cash flow, at EUR 498,000 in the first quarter of 2010, was substantially boosted (previous year: -EUR 2,597,000).
"As a rule, sales revenues of Hoeft & Wessel AG also tend to increase from quarter to quarter. We also expect that to be the case this year. In the case of ticket vending and car park terminals, we can already determine a substantial share of our sales revenues on the basis of the orders contracted. As far as mobile terminals are concerned, we currently see increasing demand," says Hansjoachim Oehmen, CEO of the Hoeft & Wessel Group, in commenting on anticipated business trends in the year 2010.
The order intake continued to see a gratifying development in the first quarter. In the first three months, new orders with a total volume of EUR 25.3 million were acquired. As a result, the newly signed contracts even almost matched the previous year´s volume of EUR 26.2 million, to which a large-scale order for car park terminals placed by the U.S. city of Philadelphia had made a key contribution. The order portfolio as at 31 March 2010 came to EUR 83.8 million (31/12/2009: EUR 74.4 million). At the Annual General Meeting of Hoeft & Wessel AG scheduled for 17 June 2010, the shareholders will be asked to vote on the payment of a dividend for the very first time.
Key figures for the Hoeft & Wessel Group
In EUR thousands 31.03.2010 31.03.2009 31.03.2008 31.03.2007 31.03.2006 ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- Sales revenues 15,901 24,466 16,283 17,956 15,024
Operating result before depreciation and
amortisation (EBITDA) (385) 1,366 160 15 (321)
Operating result (EBIT) (1,604) 220 (974) (1,110) (1,499)
in % of sales revenues - 0.9 - - -
Earnings before taxes (EBT) (1,814) 8 (1,309) (1,422) (1,630)
in % of sales revenues - 0.1 - - -
Group earnings (2,002) (208) (1,476) (1,521) (1,537)
Earnings per share (in EUR) (0.24) (0.02) (0.17) (0.18) (0.18)
Cash flow from current
operating activities 498 (2,597) (4,832) (2,092) 4,521
Cash flow from investment activities (978) (1,287) (1,344) (1,262) (1,393)
Net cash flow (77) 86 (999) (2,149) (193)
Average number of employees 495 494 506 500 489
Quarterly Report 2010 and further reports: http://www.hoeft- wessel.com/en/ir/ir.htm
Photos within the press kit: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/12945/hoeft_wessel_ag/
end of announcement euro adhoc
Further inquiry note:
Dr. Arnd Fritzemeier
Tel.: +49-511-6102-300
E-Mail: af@hoeft-wessel.com
Branche: Technology
ISIN: DE0006011000
WKN: 601100
Index: TecDAX, Prime All Share, Technology All Share
Börsen: Frankfurt / regulated dealing/prime standard
Berlin / free trade
Hamburg / free trade
Stuttgart / free trade
Düsseldorf / free trade
Hannover / free trade
München / free trade