Wuppertal, 15 August 2007 – Prime Standard-listed holding company, GESCO AG, reported continued growth in the first quarter (01.04.-30.06.2007) of financial year 2007/2008 (01.04.2007-31.03.2008). The Group’s companies have full order books and are reporting high capacity utilisation. Since the earnings situation has developed significantly better than expected, the company has raised its projections significantly for the full year on 7 August 2007.
The sharp rise in incoming orders of 44.7 % to EUR 91.7 million (previous year: EUR 63.4 million) supports the dynamic of the development. Sales also rose sharply by 33.4 % to reach EUR 80.5 million (EUR 60.4 million). Despite a further increase in material expenditure ratios, the earnings figures rose disproportionately, as many of the Group companies benefited from higher capacity utilisation and lower fixed costs. Past investments also had a positive effect on efficiency and operational performance. EBITDA rose by 53.7% to EUR 10.9 million (EUR 7.1 million). Since depreciation increased at a lower rate than sales, EBIT rose even more sharply, 65.1%, to reach EUR 8.6 million (EUR 5.2 million). Group net income after minority interests recorded a 70.0% growth to EUR 4.3 million (EUR 2.5 million).
The headcount increased by 330 employees to 1,645 (1,315). Of these additional staff members, 301 came from Frank Walz- und Schmiedetechnik GmbH, acquired in the previous financial year, and VWH Vorrichtungs- und Werkzeugbau Herschbach GmbH, acquired in April 2007; both companies were not included in the figures for the previous first quarter.
Given this extremely positive development, the company has upgraded the full-year sales projection from EUR 310 million to EUR 320 million (ad-hoc notification of 07.08.2007). The forecast for Group net income for the year after minority interests rose from EUR 12.5 million to EUR 15.4 million. The new projections include a non-recurring book entry of EUR 0.5 million from the revaluation of deferred taxes under the recent tax reform. Projected IFRS under IFRS was raised from EUR 4.13 to EUR 5.09.
GESCO Board member, Dr. Hans-Gert Mayrose, commented on the quarterly results: “The GESCO Group companies have made an excellent start to the new financial year. We had expected positive business development, but the dynamic of the first months exceeded our expectations significantly. This outstanding development would not be possible without the high motivation and performance of the Group’s employees.