EANS-Adhoc: Mühlbauer Holding AG & Co.KGaA
Strong core business achieves new
record high in order income - earnings impacted by special influences - high
order backlog generates positive basis for current financial year
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.
3-month report
27.04.2009
Roding, 28 April 2009 - Irrespective of the further aggravation of the worldwide financial and economic crisis, the Mühlbauer technology group recorded a positive start to the 2009 financial year. While earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) was significantly lower year-on-year, largely due to the higher depreciation of inventories and further allocations to provisions for legal fees, the new record high in order income achieved in the company´s core business area Cards & TECURITY® confirms the excellent positioning and sustained attractiveness as a leading global system partner for the entire transfer of technology and expertise for the production of electronic ID documents. Furthermore, the order backlog to the end of the reporting period is a good starting point for the current financial year.
Consolidated sales of the Mühlbauer technology group recorded EUR 38.1 million (PY: EUR 43.2 million) in Q1 2009, thus lagging the same quarter of the previous year by 11.7%, despite the sales increase in its core business area Cards & TECURITY®. Including the special charges from the depreciation of inventories and the additions to accruals for legal fees, which impacted the result and were effected in connection with patent infringement suits, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR 2.4 million (PY: EUR 7.1 million). This corresponds to a reduction of the EBIT margin from 16.4% to 6.3%. The regrouping of the securities portfolio to securities with lower risk and thus lower return, effected in the course of the global financial crisis and the significant decline in interest rates for demand deposits largely resulted in the fact that the financial result dropped from EUR 0.5 million to EUR 0.1 million year-on-year. This results in a pre-tax profit of EUR 2.4 million (PY: EUR 7.6 million) and, after deducting tax expenses, net earnings for the period of EUR 1.8 million - after EUR 5.7 million for the same period of the previous year. Earnings per share consequently dropped to EUR 0.12 (PY: EUR 0.39).
Due to the adjustment of the working capital management to the current development, working capital declined by EUR 2.8 million to EUR 50.9 million in the first quarter, while free cashflow was EUR -2.7 million lower year-on-year, at EUR -0.4 million (PY: EUR +2.3 million) as a result of the scheduled payments made during the reporting period in respect of the completion of the new technology centers in the USA and Slovakia. The equity ratio dropped from 77.5% to 76.5% and was only slightly below the previous year´s value.
Irrespective of the difficult economic market environment the Mühlbauer technology group succeeded due to a significant increase in orders in the company´s core business area Cards & TECURITY® in fully compensating for the decline in orders in the other business areas, caused primarily by the current economic trend. At the same time, the high reference value of the previous year (EUR 48.2 million) climbed 8.3% to EUR 52.2 million.
While the investments in the core business area Cards & TECURITY® in respect of the implementation of the strategic development goal from a technology supplier to a system partner for the entire transfer of technology and expertise for the production of electronic ID documents were acknowledged with a distinct increase of order income of 36.7% to EUR 40.6 million (PY: EUR 29.7 million), the remaining industry-related areas lagged behind year-on-year: Thus, order income of Semiconductor Related Products was moderately lower year-on-year, at EUR 7.6 million (PY: EUR 7.9 million) irrespective of the noticeable rise in interest for Smart Label production lines, while severe declines in order were recorded in Traceability (EUR 0.8 million; PY: EUR 4.6 million) and Precision Parts & Systems (EUR 3.2 million; PY: EUR 6.0 million). The order backlog recorded at the end of Q1 2009 climbed to EUR 94.7 million (PY: EUR 76.9 million) and thus underwent a significant increase of 23.1%.
Mühlbauer's ambitious goal to achieve a stable development of sales and earnings in the 2009 financial year, represents a growing challenge, in view of the aggravation of the economic crisis. Due to the distinct cyclical decline of the majority of the industrial business, it is to be expected that the ongoing business development will be strongly characterized by the government-related TECURITY® business. In this area, Mühlbauer is therefore focusing on qualifying for further ID projects and on providing the complete technology and entire expertise for the production of electronic ID documents as a worldwide leading system partner without disregading previous efforts of intensifying the market diversification in order to generate more business in the other areas. In so doing, the company benefits, in particular, from the rising demand for innovative security-oriented ID documents in Smart Card and passport formats and the resultant high demand for system solutions.
Contact and additional information: Investor Relations, Tilo Rosenberger, Tel.: +49 (0) 9461-952-1653, Fax: +49 (0) 9461-952-8520, investor-relations@muehlbauer.de, Mühlbauer Holding AG & Co. KGaA, Josef-Mühlbauer-Platz 1, 93426 Roding, Germany, www.muehlbauer.de.
end of announcement euro adhoc
Further inquiry note:
Hubert Forster
CFO
+49(0)9461-952-1141
hubert.forster@muehlbauer.de
Branche: Machine Manufacturing
ISIN: DE0006627201
WKN: 662720
Index: Nemax 50, CDAX, Prime All Share, Technologie All Share
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