Heidelberg has made a good start to the new financial year 2015/2016. The figures for the first quarter (April 1 to June 30, 2015) show that the company’s strategic reorientation is having an impact, with improvements in both sales and the result. The acquisition of the European Printing Systems Group (PSG), a successful trade show in China, and positive exchange rate movements have had a particularly positive effect. As a result, Heidelberg saw a further increase in its order backlog at the end of the first quarter.
“As it starts the new financial year, Heidelberg is well on the way to achieving its targets for the year,” said CFO and Deputy CEO Dirk Kaliebe. “The restructuring period is over and in the future we’ll be re-focusing our attention on managing our growth,” he added.
According to Heidelberg the operating result was better than in the previous year, with EBITDA of € 46 million (previous year: € 6 million) and EBIT of € 28 million (previous year: € -11 million). Income from the takeover of PSG totaling about € 19 million had a positive impact on both these figures. Excluding this income and adjusted for sales-related exchange rate effects, the EBITDA margin was around 5 percent. The PSG income compensated for negative special items from subsequent expenditure amounting to some € 15 million for partial retirement agreements concluded in the previous year. EBIT including special items thus increased significantly, from € -11 million to € 13 million.
At € -14 million, the financial result was better than in the same quarter of the previous year
(€ -17 million). The net result before taxes (€ -1 million following € -28 million in the same quarter of the previous year) and the net result after taxes (€ -4 million following € -34 million in the same quarter of the previous year) were almost at break-even.
