- Consolidated sales increase by 50% to €305.3 million (previous year: €203.6 million)
- Consolidated EBITDA grows by 24% to €30.8 million (previous year: €24.7 million)
- Consolidated EBIT increases by 20% to €24.2 million (previous year: €20.1 million)
- Order books rise to €127.5 million (previous year: €91.1 million)
Strong organic growth of 10% in its traditional markets and the acquisition of telent ensured that euromicron posted a record fiscal year in 2011. The sales volume is thus well over the target of €280 to €300 million the company set itself. The target of €300 million, which was actually planned for 2013, has thus already been exceeded and euromicron will embark on the next stage of its corporate strategy ahead of schedule.
“In the past fiscal year we succeeded as planned in rigorously continuing the profitable growth course of the past years,” is how Thomas Hoffmann describes euromicron’s outstanding performance. Apart from permanent improvement in the general conditions for operational business, there was particular focus in 2011 on optimizing the corporate and financing structures. “The stable data from the German economy, good forecasts for euromicron’s traditional markets and our high order books are an excellent platform for 2012,” adds Hoffmann.
Consolidated sales
In fiscal 2011, the euromicron Group generated sales of €305.3 million, an increase of 50% over the previous year’s figure of €203.6 million. Sales outside the German market were €37.5 million (previous year: €29.6 million), a share of 12.3% in relation to total sales.
Consolidated income
In the period under review, consolidated EBIT rose from €20.1 million in the previous year to €24.2 million or by around 20%. As a result, the euromicron Group achieved a consolidated EBIT margin of just under 8%, despite high non-recurring expenses as a result of acquisitions, and so is within its forecast range of 7.5% to 8.5%. Given the first-time consolidation of telent in the euromicron Group, this temporary decline in the EBIT ratio was expected for fiscal year 2011. Profitability is to be increased significantly alongside integration of telent’s business and leveraging of synergies in 2012 and 2013, with the objective of enabling the group to quickly achieve its target EBIT return of 8% to 11% again as it has done in previous years. EBITDA increased to €30.8 million (previous year: €24.7 million).
Consolidated net income was around €12.9 million (previous year: €12.1 million), giving (undiluted) earnings per share of €2.33 (previous year: €2.38). Despite the sharp increase in the weighted average number of euromicron shares due to the issue of new shares in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and large one-off effects in fiscal 2011, undiluted earnings per share remained largely constant thanks to the euromicron Group’s excellent fundamentals.
Order situation at the Group
New orders in fiscal 2011 rose by around 50% to €309.2 million (previous year: €205.6 million).
New orders were €127.5 million, well above the figure of €91.1 million in 2010. euromicron enters fiscal 2012 with well-filled order books.
Balance sheet structure
Total assets of the euromicron Group at December 31, 2011, rose to €265.7 million or by 35.4% year on year.
Personnel
The euromicron Group employed 1,565 persons and 102 trainees at December 31, 2011. The headcount grew sharply, above all due to the acquisitions (telent added 400 employees to the Group).
Equity
Stockholders’ equity at December 31, 2011, was €120.2 million (previous year: €89.3 million), a year-on-year increase of 34.6%. Contributory factors in the increase in equity were the net income for 2011 and the capital increase in November 2011. Consequently, the equity ratio at December 31, 2011, remained stable at 45.2%, on a par with the good level of the previous year (45.5%), against the backdrop of the sharp rise in total assets.
Finances/liquidity
As in past years, euromicron’s banks again proved to be strong and dependable partners in fiscal 2011. None of the financial institutes stated that it intended to end or restrict its commitment at euromicron. On the contrary, euromicron AG had new opportunities to improve its financing structure on account of its investment grade status. For example, the raising of a borrower’s note loan of €24.5 million significantly improved the ratio between short- and long-term financial debt and so enabled further optimization of the euromicron Group’s financing structure. Of particular importance for the company is the statement by all of the financing partners that euromicron in its entirety is graded as a risk-free commitment.
Share and investor relations
The euromicron share started the fiscal year at a price of €22.40 and peaked at €23.29 in the first quarter. After a very good performance in the first and second quarters, the share of euromicron AG was not fully able to buck the general trend on the financial markets, but proved extremely robust in relation to general price trends on the stock market and displayed a clear upward tendency despite the volatile market. At the end of the year, the fine performance of the share was impacted by the capital increase and an issue price of €16.00 per share and closed 2011 at a relatively weak €15.93. At December 31, 2011, the share’s market capitalization was therefore €106 million, slightly down on the previous year (€110 million). At present (March 2012), however, euromicron’s share is again performing stably in the €22 to €23 range and has an increased market capitalization of around €150 million.
euromicron AG conducted a capital increase on November 7, 2011, to strengthen its equity ratio and give it economic flexibility. A total of 1,537,800 new shares were placed on the market at a price of €16.00 and the number of shares increased to 6,663,799. The company obtained liquid funds of around €24.6 million and its capital stock rose by just over €3.9 million to €17.0 million as a result of the capital increase. The proceeds from the capital increase of around €24.6 million are part of the framework for financing the company’s growth and innovation program for new products and systems. At the same time, the capital increase largely served to strengthen the equity ratio, bolster the capital structure and reduce borrowings. As a result, euromicron was able to boost its financial flexibility for the next stage of its corporate strategy.
Due to the company’s good performance, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose to the General Meeting on May 25, 2012, to distribute €1.15 per share in line with its continuous dividend policy. This payout totals around 50% of the profits earned.
Outlook
“In the next two fiscal years, we intend to focus on organic growth and further optimization of the company’s structures as part of integration,” is how Dr. Willibald Späth explains the company’s prospects. That means that not only value-adding processes, but also sales and administration processes will be reviewed with a view to enhancing their efficiency and again achieving and maintaining an EBIT return within the Group’s target of between 8% and 11% on the basis of the sharp increase and continuing growth in sales.
“Particular opportunities for the future enterprise as a whole will arise thanks to the combination of the advantages of telent GmbH and its strong structures with the strengths of euromicron’s existing flexible, SME-oriented and customer-centric companies,” adds Dr. Späth. The focus in the coming phase of development will be on improving profitability after the Group’s sharp growth, expanding its technological expertise, securing its liquidity by enhanced cash and receivables management and so extending and fortifying the company’s economic stability. This extensive optimization process will, alongside organic growth, take up the years 2012 and 2013 as planning stand, as well as a large part of the company’s attention.
euromicron AG (www.euromicron.de) is an all-round solution provider for communications, transport, data and security networks. euromicron’s network infrastructures integrate voice, video and data transport wirelessly, via copper cable and by means of fiber-optic technologies. euromicron builds leading applications, such as security, control, healthcare or surveillance systems, on the basis of these cutting-edge network infrastructures.
Founded on its expertise as a developer and producer of fiber-optic components, euromicron AG is a strongly growing, highly profitable group that is listed on the stock market, has a medium-sized character and focuses on operational growth, integration and further market penetration, internationalization and expansion.