Ad hoc: Koenig & Bauer AG: Koenig & Bauer AG: Cost savings will boost results in subsequent
quarters
Koenig & Bauer AG / Quarterly report / Ad hoc: Koenig & Bauer AG:
Cost savings will boost results in subsequent
quarters
Ad hoc announcement according to §15 WpHG processed and transmitted
by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this
announcement.
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Following slack demand in the final quarter of 2008, the first
quarter brought little relief to the printing press sector. The group
order intake for Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) totalled EUR219.5m, a drop
of 40.7% from the prior-year figure of EUR370.3m. However, this was
better than the industry average, largely thanks to KBA's broad
product range addressing both volume and niche markets. While orders
for web and special presses were down 28.7% at EUR142.2m (2008:
EUR199.3m), the knock-on effects of the financial and economic crisis
caused demand for sheetfed presses to shrink by more than half to
EUR77.3m (2008: EUR171m). The impact on sales, which declined by 27%
to EUR220.2m (2008: EUR301.7m), was equally disparate. A relatively
moderate drop of 9.1% to EUR143.4m (2008: EUR157.7m) in the web and
special press division, where production cycles tend to be much
longer, contrasted with a plunge of 46.7% to EUR76.8m (2008: EUR144m)
in the sheetfed division. The group order backlog of EUR500.8m at the
end of the quarter was roughly the same as at the beginning, but was
41.8% below the corresponding figure for the previous year of
EUR860.5m. Web and special presses accounted for almost four-fifths
of unfilled orders.
The savings in personnel expenses delivered by short-time work at all
KBA's production plants failed to offset the revenue lost through
slower sales. Management anticipates a substantial reduction in
personnel and material costs in coming months following the
implementation of the scheduled capacity adjustments, for which ample
provision was made last year. These entail extensive job cuts at the
sheetfed factories. A first-quarter operating loss of EUR32.7m (2008:
EUR-5m) and pre-tax loss of EUR35.2m (2008: EUR-6.4m) were in line
with expectations. The net loss came to EUR33.2m (2008: EUR-1m),
resulting in earnings per share of EUR-2.03 (2008: -6 cents).
Cash flows from operating activities were positive, totalling
EUR19.2m (2008: EUR88.6m). This was largely due to a substantial drop
in trade receivables. The free cash flow came to EUR13.5m (2008:
EUR73.7m). Liquid assets swelled from EUR85.8m at the end of December
to EUR99.4m at the end of March, and the net financial position
improved from EUR22.6m to EUR36.6m over the same period. Despite the
quarterly loss, the equity ratio of 33.9% was higher than the
industry average. At the end of March there were 7,646 employees on
the group payroll, 535 fewer than twelve months earlier and 192 fewer
than at the beginning of the quarter.
KBA president and CEO Helge Hansen says: "In the current market
environment, our March prediction of a 20% decline in sales is fairly
optimistic, as is the balanced pre-tax result we are targeting. We
shall therefore continue to devote all our energies to pursuing these
goals. We are currently in the process of adjusting capacities to a
smaller market volume, and this will materially improve our
profitability by the end of the year. The total package aims for
savings of several hundred million euros in personnel and material
costs by 2011. We'll keep you posted on progress in our interim
reports."
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Koenig & Bauer AG
Friedrich-Koenig-Straße 4 Würzburg Germany
WKN:
719350; ISIN: DE0007193500; Index: SDAX;
Listed: Freiverkehr in Börse Stuttgart, Freiverkehr in Hanseatische
Wertpapierbörse zu Hamburg,
Freiverkehr in Börse Berlin, Prime Standard in Frankfurter
Wertpapierbörse,
Freiverkehr in Börse Düsseldorf, Regulierter Markt in Bayerische
Börse München,
Regulierter Markt in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse;