revenue on track: up 1.6 percent to EUR 38.4 million / EBIT up 5.2 percent to EUR 4 million / net profit for the period EUR 2.2 million or EUR 0.33 per share / optimistic outlook confirmed
technotrans is again able to report a successful start to the financial year of 2007. The technotrans Group was able to increase its revenue to EUR 38.4 million, a rise of 1.6 percent on the previous year's first quarter (EUR 37.8 million). The European companies performed particularly well, whereas America is, as expected, down on the previous year due to the relinquishing of trade revenue. At group level, the latter development was compensated for in part by the acquisition of rotoclean and its technologies, which are included in the financial statements for the first time.
As expected, the operating result also improved. The rise in revenue compares with an increase in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 5.2 percent to just under EUR 4.0 million (previous year EUR 3.8 million).
As a result of the negative profit contribution from America and China, the effective tax rate rose to 41.7 percent in the first quarter. The net income for the period was consequently only EUR 2.2 million (previous year EUR 2.3 million). This corresponds to basic earnings per share of EUR 0.33 (previous year EUR 0.35).
The total number of employees within the group rose by 9.2 percent during the first three months, from an average of 703 to 768. This time the rise in employees was sharper in Germany (+11 percent) than at the international subsidiaries (+5.6 percent).
The Segments
The Technology Segment generated revenue of EUR 29.3 million in the first quarter, which is broadly unchanged from the corresponding quarter of the previous year (EUR 29.6 million).
The result for the segment of EUR 2.3 million is still well down on the corresponding prior-year figure (EUR 2.8 million), and the EBIT margin is 7.9 percent. The higher overall cost of labour and a slight rise in the cost of materials diminished the result for the segment in the first quarter. rotoclean business made only a minor contribution towards the segment result.
The Services segment made a dynamic start to the new year, posting revenue of EUR 9.1 million (previous year EUR 8.2 million, +11.5 percent).
The segment's profitability also developed well. EBIT reached EUR 1.5 million, a marked improvement on the previous year (EUR 0.9 million), and the margin thus rose to 16.9 percent.
Outlook
In the most important markets of the USA and Germany, capacity utilisation is growing and printers' propensity to invest is rising. Experts believe that the reinvestment cycles of American companies, which had lengthened considerably in recent years, will shorten again significantly. Developing countries in both Asia and South America are moreover becoming increasingly significant, posting growth rates way above the average. “Printing press manufacturers' healthy levels of incoming orders, revenue and order backlogs should therefore guarantee that technotrans' basic business should continue to flourish,” says Heinz Harling, Chairman of the Board of Management of technotrans AG.
“By introducing new products and in particular by entering the market for cleaning systems, we will furthermore be able to tap into considerable additional potential that will be a driving force behind growth over the next few years. By expanding our international network, we will also be able to access markets where we previously did not have any direct sales and service operations of our own,” says Dirk Engel, CFO of technotrans AG. “We have recently taken a further step in this direction by establishing our new base in Australia, and the establishment of further subsidiaries in the United Arab Emirates and Russia are currently in the pipeline. On top of this, we are currently developing our location in China into a fully-fledged production plant that will shortly start manufacturing complete devices for the local market.”
“We are satisfied with our start to the 2007 financial year and expect to achieve our targets for the year as a whole: revenue of EUR 160 to 165 million and net income of EUR 10.5 to 11 million,“ Engel sums up the outlook for the current fiscal year.
Key Data 01-03/2007
Dates: Publication of the figures for the first quarter of 2007 is scheduled for May 8, 2007.
Securities: technotrans AG - ISIN DE0007449001 - German Securities Identification No. WKN 744 900
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