euro adhoc: Rosenbauer International AG
Quarterly or Semiannual
Financial Statements
FIRST QUARTER 2005: A GOOD START IN THE
FINANCIAL YEAR 2005
Disclosure announcement transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer is responsible for the content of this announcement.
25.05.2005
The Rosenbauer Group got off to a good start in 2005, with a 1st-quarter result that was up on the previous year's. Nevertheless, the first three months of this year once again corresponded to the pattern that is customary in the fire-equipment sector, where the lion's share of the annual result tends to be earned in the second half of the year.
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ROSENBAUER GROUP 1-3/2005 1-3/2004 Revenue in mEUR 64.2 66.0 EBIT in mEUR 2.0 1.3 EBT in mEUR 1.3 0.6 Profit after tax in mEUR 1.0 (0.1) Consolidated profit in mEUR 0.1 (0.8) Investments in mEUR 1.0 1.1 Order backlog as at 31.03. in mEUR 208.9 195.3 Order intake in mEUR 65.4 66.8 Employees 1,383 1,327 Earnings per share in EUR 0.0 (0.5) ~
Considerable attention was focused in the first quarter on establishing our joint venture in China. China today is the fire-equipment sector's Number 1 growth market. The 50% joint venture Rosenbauer YongQiang Vehicle Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has recently been established with a local partner in Dongguan, in Guangdong Province. The requisite business licence was awarded shortly before this report went to print. Currently under construction, the new manufacturing facility will be producing its first vehicles by the end of this year
The market in Germany - Europe's biggest single market - is still not developing satisfactorily. Despite the high level of deferred replacement needs that has built up, no recovery is expected in this market in the foreseeable future. Rosenbauer has thus initiated a program to scale back capacity at turntable-ladder manufacturer Metz Aerials' plant in Karlsruhe.
REVENUE AND RESULTS TRENDS The Rosenbauer Group posted consolidated revenues of EUR 64.2 m in the first quarter of 2005 (2004: EUR 66.0 m).
While revenues at the Austrian companies fell back from EUR 39.2 m to EUR 34.0 m in the wake of the exceptionally large shipments that had been made to the Arab world and to Greece the year before, the US segment enjoyed revenue growth of 47%. This resulted from stepped-up deliveries made under a US Army order for a total of 170 vehicles.
The profit from operations (EBIT) came to EUR 2.0 m, as against EUR 1.3 m in the same period last year. This improvement in the result is mainly attributable to the Group's US companies. First-quarter EBT rose correspondingly, by EUR 0.6 m, to EUR 1.3 m.
ORDERS At EUR 65.4 m (1-3/2004: EUR 66.8 m), incoming orders in the Group in the first quarter of 2005 were at broadly the same level as the year before. The Rosenbauer Group's order books totalled EUR 208.9 m at March 31, 2005, 7.0% up on last year's figure (March 31, 2004: EUR 195.3 m). The new orders received from the US Army and the Spanish and Australian airport and air-traffic control companies made a sizeable contribution to this positive development. This level of order books is above the several-year average and will assure high capacity utilisation at the main production facilities.
OUTLOOK Given the healthy volume of orders on hand, and allowing for the restructuring outlays budgeted for Metz Aerials in Karlsruhe, Management is still looking for 2005 EBT on a par with that achieved last year (2004: EUR 10.5 m), on slightly higher Group revenues (2004: EUR 299.4 m).
end of announcement euro adhoc 25.05.2005 07:30:00
Further inquiry note:
Marlene Schneider
Branche: Machine Manufacturing
ISIN: AT0000922554
WKN: 092255
Index: WBI, ATX Prime
Börsen: Berliner Wertpapierbörse / free trade
Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse / free trade
Wiener Börse AG / official dealing