EANS-News: BAUER Aktiengesellschaft
Bauer presents Half-Year Interim Report
containing detailed analysis of its market segments
Schrobenhausen, (euro adhoc) -
. Total Group revenues down 5.4 percent to EUR 681.0 million. . After-tax profit down EUR 16.1 million to EUR 21.1 million. . Three-segment strategy and global presence proving to be stabilizing factors. . Forecast for 2009: total Group revenues of EUR 1.3 billion and after-tax profit around a third of the previous year's level.
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August 14, 2009 - The business of construction and machinery manufacturing group BAUER Aktiengesellschaft suffered from the effects of the global economic crisis in the second quarter of the year. Significant falls in the machinery manufacturing business could not be offset by the solid performance in specialist foundation engineering and the healthy growth of the Resources segment. Having published its key performance indicators and updated its full-year forecast at the beginning of August, the BAUER Group today presents its Half-Year Interim Report containing a detailed analysis of its various business segments and markets.
Total Group revenues in the first half of the year were EUR 681.0 million, down 5.4 percent against the previous year's figure. EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) totalled EUR 44.9 million. This represented a fall of 7.3 percent relative to the previous quarter, and was down 29.2 percent against the previous-year comparative period, which had seen particularly strong earnings and growth. After-tax profit fell correspondingly by EUR 16.1 million, or 43.3 percent, to EUR 21.1 million. Orders in hand held by the Group at the mid-year point totalled EUR 523.4 million. This was 35.3 percent less than at the same time last year. Bauer employed an average of 8,497 people (previous year: 7,989) worldwide through the first half of the year.
Business segments
The Group's strategic focus on its three business segments - Construction, Equipment and Resources - combined with its global presence is proving advantageous in the current market situation. In view of the widely varying trends being seen in the individual regions and market segments, this strategy is having a balancing and stabilizing effect across the Group.
The Construction segment is currently the key pillar of the business. It admittedly witnessed declines in crisis-hit markets such as Eastern Europe and Dubai, and a fall in the number of large-scale projects following the extraordinary boom of last year, which together saw revenues drop 17.2 percent to EUR 279.4 million in the first six months of 2009. However, the segment's operating profit of EUR 12.9 million was 0.7 percent up (previous year: EUR 12.8 million) and orders in hand even increased by EUR 21.6 million from the first to the second quarter of 2009. Orders in hand were down 23.4 percent to EUR 370.7 million relative to the previous year.
The recently established Resources segment achieved strong growth in the first half of the year as it targeted new, future-oriented markets. Its revenues increased by more than a third to EUR 71.2 million (previous year: EUR 52.9 million). Alongside a major project in Oman, key drivers of this performance were the mining sector as well as new orders for water well engineering materials. The integration of the newly acquired SITE Group in Jordan has begun well. The segment also made a pleasing contribution to the development of the Group as a whole with a positive operating profit (EBIT) of EUR 637 thousand (previous year: EUR -550 thousand).
The area of our business proving most susceptible to the global crisis was the Equipment segment, which saw massive falls in demand and in sales of standard construction machinery. In this area of business, orders in hand at the half- way point slumped by 72.5 percent to EUR 81.1 million (previous year: EUR 294.9 million), representing approximately one and a half months' capacity utilization. Although the performance of the segment remained stable at EUR 372.3 million (previous year: EUR 365.7 million; change: +1.8 percent), external revenues were already down 7.7 percent. The segment's operating profit (EBIT) of EUR 33.1 million (previous year: EUR 51.1 million) showed a decline of 35.2 percent compared with the prior-year figure.
Outlook
The Group has already taken effective measures to hold this trend in check by cutting back on temporary staff and introducing short-time working at almost all its plants. "We are deploying major efforts to cut costs on a massive scale, and we are currently tendering for a significant number of interesting projects," reports Chairman of the Management Board Professor Thomas Bauer. "If such major projects are in fact implemented, they may well deliver a rapid boost to contractors such as Bauer."
BAUER AG forecasts total Group revenues of around EUR 1.3 billion (previous year: EUR 1.5 billion). According to the latest calculations, profit after tax will fall to around one-third of the previous-year figure of EUR 107.5 million.
The full Interim Report, including a detailed analysis of the individual segments and markets, can be found on our website at http://www.bauer.de.
About Bauer
Bauer is a provider of services, machinery and ancillary products in the earth- working and groundwater fields. The Group markets its products and services all over the world. Its global spread allows it to remain largely unaffected by fluctuating business cycles.
The operations of the Group are divided into three segments: Construction, Equipment and Resources. The Construction segment carries out specialist foundation engineering work all over the world, developing foundation and excavation projects as well as providing related construction services. In its Equipment segment, in which it is the world market leader, Bauer offers an extensive range of machinery, equipment and tools for specialist foundation engineering. The Resources segment encompasses the Group's operations in the exploitation of raw materials, in environmental technology, in geothermal drilling operations and also in equipment for wells (including pumps and drills, screens and casings).
Bauer profits greatly from the collaboration between its three separate segments, enabling the Group to position itself as an innovative, highly specialized provider of complete solutions and services for demanding projects on the specialist foundation engineering and related markets.
Founded in 1790, Bauer today generates more than two thirds of its total revenues outside of Germany. Employing some 8,600 people, the Group's total revenues in 2008 were EUR 1.53 billion (previous year: EUR 1.2 billion). BAUER Aktiengesellschaft has been listed on the official market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since July 4, 2006 (Prime Standard, ISIN DE0005168108).
GROUP KEY FIGURES - 1st half 2009 (IFRS)
| |1st HY 2008 |1st HY 2009 |Change | | |in EUR |in EUR million | | | |million | | | |Total Group revenues* |719.5 |681.0 |-5.4 % | |of which | | | | |- Germany |165.2 |181.2 |9.7 % | |- International |554.3 |499.8 |-9.8 % | |of which | | | | |- Construction |337.6 |279.4 |-17.2 % | |- Equipment |365.7 |372.3 |1.8 % | |- Resources |52.9 |71.2 |34.5 % | |- Other/Elim./Consol. |-36.7 |-41.9 |n/a | |Consolidated revenues |686.9 |652.2 |-5.0 % | |Sales revenues |594.7 |534.0 |-10.2 % | |Orders received |909.9 |532.8 |-41.4 % | |Orders in hand |808.4 |523.4 |-35.3 % | |EBITDA |89.1 |76.4 |-14.2 % | |EBITDA margin |15.0 % |14.3 % |n/a | |(as % of sales revenues) | | | | |EBIT |63.4 |44.9 |-29.2 % | |EBIT margin |10.7 % |8.4 % |n/a | |(as % of sales revenues) | | | | |Net profit or loss** |37.2 |21.1 |-43.3 % | |Shareholders' equity |297.2 |378.6 |27.4 % | |Equity ratio in % |30.5 % |30.3 % |n/a | |Earnings per share in EUR*** |2.09 |1.19 |-43.1 % | |Employees |7,989 |8,497 |6.4 % |
* At variance with the consolidated revenues presented in the Group income statement, the total Group revenues presented here include portions of revenues from associated companies as well as revenues of non-consolidated subsidiaries and joint ventures.
** Before minority interests
*** Diluted and basic
end of announcement euro adhoc
Further inquiry note:
Bettina Mestenhauser
Head of Investor Relations
Telefon: +49(0)8252 97 1918
E-Mail: investor.relations@bauer.de
Branche: Construction & Property
ISIN: DE0005168108
WKN: 516810
Index: MDAX, CDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
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