EANS-News: BAUER Aktiengesellschaft BAUER AG achieves healthy growth again
after difficult year
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Annual Reports/Financial Figures/Balance Sheet
Subtitle: Total Group revenues up 5.2 percent to EUR 1,371.8 million
Net profit of EUR 34.1 million (previous year: EUR 39.8 million) and EBIT
of EUR 82.3 million (previous year: EUR 88.4 million) down slightly
Orders in hand up 22.0 percent to EUR 750.0 million (previous year: EUR
614.9 million)
Forecast for 2012: Group expects steady growth of five to ten percent,
raising total Group revenues to EUR 1.45 billion
Proposed dividend: EUR 0.50 per share
Schrobenhausen/Munich (euro adhoc) - International construction engineering and
machinery manufacturing concern BAUER Aktiengesellschaft is on a steady growth
track once again. "We are satisfied with 2011 overall," comments Chairman of the
Management Board Professor Thomas Bauer. "Our strategy has proved its strength
over the last year. The Group's broad international spread and the long-term
strategic plan underpinning our products and services have enabled us to cope
well with external disturbances." Alongside political unrest in the Middle East,
the environmental disaster and nuclear accident in Japan, and the return of the
financial crisis, problems on major projects also impacted negatively on
performance.
Total Group revenues rose by 5.2 percent from EUR 1,304.0 million to EUR
1,371.8 million. Profit was down against the previous year, as expected. While
EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) declined from EUR 88.4 million to EUR
82.3 million, net profit was EUR 34.1 million (previous year: EUR 39.8 million).
Group orders in hand at the year-end totalled EUR 750.0 million, 22.0 percent
above the previous year's level. This provides a sound foundation for the
growth planned over the coming years.
The Management Board and Supervisory Board propose that a modestly reduced
dividend of EUR 0.50 per share be paid (previous year: EUR 0.60). This
corresponds to a dividend ratio of approximately 27 percent referred to
earnings after deducting minority interests.
Business segments
With its three segments - Construction, Equipment and Resources - the Group
operates a widely diversified yet well-balanced business model and an
international network. This approach once again proved its worth in the past
financial year: while the Construction segment was the most severely impacted
by the political and economic turbulence, the Equipment and Resources segments
achieved substantial growth.
The total Group revenues of the Construction segment fell by 5.4 percent to EUR
582.1 million (previous year: EUR 615.4 million). Segment EBIT fell by 38.8
percent to EUR 17.6 million (previous year: EUR 28.8 million). Factors
including the unrest in the Middle East, the effects of the debt crisis in
Europe and delays on some construction projects led to falls in revenues and
earnings. While orders in hand in Germany decreased slightly, the international
order situation developed very positively. Most of this growth was attributable
to the Center Hill Dam remediation contract in the USA, acquired in September.
The Equipment segment performed the best, achieving strong growth. Its total
Group revenues rose 13.6 percent to EUR 661.0 million (previous year: EUR 581.7
million). Segment EBIT increased by 10.2 percent to EUR 53.2 million (previous
year: EUR 48.3 million). Business in this segment is profiting particularly from
our strength in large and custom-built machinery. Orders in hand at the year-end
totalled EUR 124.7 million (previous year: EUR 140.0 million). Bauer expects to
see continued steady growth based in particular on the segment's newly developed
products and techniques.
The Resources segment again enjoyed positive growth. Its total Group revenues
of EUR 211.5 million were 19.0 percent up on the previous year's level (EUR
177.7 million). Segment EBIT increased by 34.9 percent to EUR 10.9 million
(previous year: EUR 8.1 million), though delays and operational problems on a
major project in Jordan meant that it did not come up to expectations. Orders
in hand increased by 39.5 percent to EUR 168.4 million, providing the segment
with a sound foundation for further growth.
Outlook
In the past year the BAUER Group continued to invest in its long-term
development and strengthened its business. In Malaysia, a new plant was
constructed to serve the markets of the Far East by manufacturing drilling
tools and providing local service backup for equipment in use around the
region. International equipment service was extended with new workshops in the
UK and Russia. A new plant in Poland is manufacturing plastic pipes and filters
for the Resources segment. A new plant to produce rotary drilling rigs will be
constructed in China this year to replace the current facility.
The BAUER Group also invested heavily in research and development. It achieved a
technological breakthrough in the past year with an entirely new technique for
sinking the foundations of tidal turbines. And intensive work was carried out to
enhance the range of deep drilling rigs for oil and gas drilling and for
extracting geothermal energy from depths down to several thousand metres.
"One of the main drivers of construction sector growth over the coming years
will be the reversal of energy policy. Old power stations will have to be
updated and new ones built, and the generation of power from renewable sources
such as wind, biogas and geothermal energy will open up lots of opportunities
for us," Professor Thomas Bauer asserts. "Internationally, we see a general
major backlog in demand for construction works."
Despite market volatility, BAUER AG expects to achieve annual growth of between
five and ten percent over the next two financial years. Based on current
figures, the company forecasts that total Group revenues for 2012 will be around
EUR 1.45 billion, net profit will be about EUR 35 million, and EBIT around EUR
85 million. It is likely that trends in the industry this year will return to
the normal patterns of earlier years, with the first quarter showing a loss
which is balanced out over the subsequent quarters.
Our full Annual 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 for ground
and groundwater. The Group markets its products and services all over the
world. Its global spread allows it to remain largely unaffected by fluctuating
business cycles.
Its business is divided into three segments: Construction, Equipment and
Resources. The Construction segment carries out specialist foundation
engineering work for complex excavation pits and foundations on major
infrastructure and building projects all over the world, installing cut-off
walls and carrying out ground improvement works as well as providing related
project development services. Bauer's Equipment segment, a world market leader,
offers a comprehensive range of construction machinery, equipment and tools for
the specialist foundation engineering sector as well as for other underground
drilling operations, such as for mines, water wells, geothermal energy sources,
and oil and gas extraction. The Resources segment pools the Group's activities
in the fields of water, energy, mineral resources and environmental technology.
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 around three quarters of its total
revenues outside of Germany. Employing some 9,700 people, the Group's total
revenues in 2011 were approximately EUR 1.4 billion (previous year: EUR 1.3
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 2011 (IFRS)
| |2010 |2011 |Change |
| |in EUR million |in EUR million | |
|Total Group revenues |1,304.0 |1,371.8 |+5.2 % |
|of which | | | |
|- Germany |339.1 |370.3 |+9.2 % |
|- International |964.9 |1,001.5 |+3.8 % |
|of which | | | |
|- Construction |615.4 |582.1 |-5.4 % |
|- Equipment |581.7 |661.0 |+13.6 % |
|- Resources |177.7 |211.5 |+19.0 % |
|- Other/Consolidation |-70.8 |-82.8 |n/a |
|Consolidated revenues |1,255.6 |1,327.1 |+5.7 % |
|Sales revenues |1,131.7 |1,219.6 |+7.8 % |
|Orders received |1,410.0 |1,506.9 |+6.9 % |
|Orders in hand |614.9 |750.0 |+22.0 % |
|EBITDA |165.5 |164.5 |-0.6 % |
|EBITDA margin (as % of sales |14.6 % |13.5 % |n/a |
|revenues) | | | |
|EBIT |88.4 |82.3 |-6.9 % |
|EBIT margin (as % of sales |7.8 % |6.7 % |n/a |
|revenues) | | | |
|Net profit or loss |39.8 |34.1 |-14.3 % |
|Shareholders' equity |443.9 |470.4 |+6.0 % |
|Equity ratio |33.2 % |31.6 % |n/a |
|Earnings per share in EUR |2.04 |1.86 |-8.8 % |
|Employees (on average over the |9,094 |9,646 |+6.1 % |
|year) | | | |
Further inquiry note:
Christopher Wolf
Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 8252 97 1797
E-Mail: christopher.wolf@bauer.de
end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: BAUER Aktiengesellschaft
BAUER-Straße 1
D-86529 Schrobenhausen
phone: +49 (0)8252-97-1797
FAX: +49 (0)8252-97-2900
mail: investor.relations@bauer.de
WWW: http://www.bauer.de
sector: Construction & Property
ISIN: DE0005168108
indexes: SDAX, CDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
stockmarkets: free trade: Berlin, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart,
regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt
language: English