Agfa-Gevaert commented on its results in the third quarter of 2021. “In the third quarter, we made good progress with several important steps in Agfa’s transformation process. At the end of October, we announced the intention to partner with Atos for our internal IT activities. By doing so, we will invest in a future-proof IT environment in a socially responsible way. The actions to organize the Offset Solutions activities into a stand-alone legal entity structure and organization within the Agfa-Gevaert Group are expected to be finalized by April 2022.
Business-wise, we saw a decent recovery of market demand for most of our activities, but on the other hand all divisions somehow suffered from the surging cost inflation and supply chain issues. Due to successful price actions for our film products and printing plates, as well as strict cost management, our margins remained at a decent level compared to last year. We also managed to keep our working capital stable as a percentage of sales. Going forward, we will continue to adapt our prices to the situation on the raw material markets and cost management will remain one of our top priorities,” said Pascal Juéry, President and CEO of the Agfa-Gevaert Group.
Share buyback program on track
March 10, the Agfa-Gevaert Group announced a share buyback program with a volume of up to 50 million Euro. The program allows shareholders to benefit from the sale of part of the HealthCare IT activities and shows the Group’s confidence in its ongoing transformation process. The program was launched April 1. Every week, the Group issues a press release on the status of the program. In the course of the third quarter, the Group bought approximately 2.8 million shares for an amount of 11.8 million Euro. Since the beginning of the program until November 5, 2021, the Group bought 5.8 million shares.
