(DGAP-Media / 02.05.2014 / 21:06)
Financial Results First Quarter 2014
Good Start into 2014
? Net Sales EUR 48.4 million (Q1 2013: EUR 43.1 million), plus 12.3%
(12.4% organic)
? Order Backlog increased by 7.5% (book to bill ratio of 1.04)
? EBITDA Margin 10.3% (Q1 2013: 6.6%)
? Free Cash Flow of EUR 1.8 million (3.7% of Net Sales)
? The outlook for the coming 2014 quarters remains optimistic
? Greenock S.à r.l., a major shareholder of exceet has recently
informed the company that it is currently assessing its strategic
options related to its shareholding in the company
Luxembourg, 2 May 2014 - 06.30 p.m. exceet started promising into 2014.
Group sales in Q1 2014 increased by 12.3%, reaching EUR 48.4 million
against EUR 43.1 million for Q1 2013. On a like-for-like basis sales grew
by 12.4%, whereby the impact from foreign currencies was limited to 0.1
percentage points. On 31 March 2014 exceet's order backlog amounted to EUR
103.6 million which is 7.5% higher as of 31 March 2013 (EUR 96.4 million)
and reflects a book-to-bill ratio of 1.04 (Q1 2013: 0.96).
The continuous focus on higher margin products in all segments supported
the gross profit margin improvement from 15.5% in Q1 2013 to 18.9% in Q1
2014. This represents an increase from EUR 6.7 million to EUR 9.2 million
(+37.2%). exceet achieved an EBITDA of EUR 5.0 million (10.3% of net sales)
in Q1 2014 compared to EUR 2.9 million (6.6% of net sales) in Q1 2013.
Electronic Components, Modules & Systems (ECMS), exceet's largest segment,
increased net sales by 5.0% to EUR 33.7 million against EUR 32.1 million
during the same period of the previous year. In Q1 2014, EBITDA reached EUR
5.7 million against EUR 3.4 million in Q1 2013. The EBITDA margin improved
accordingly from 10.5% in Q1 2013 to 16.9% in Q1 2014 due to the strong
customer demand for intelligent electronics especially in the health sector
and attractive development orders paid by the customers.
To reinforce its development capabilities, exceet signed an agreement to
purchase Valtronic Technologies Romania Srl a Romanian development company.
The highly skilled team of eleven engineers will mainly strengthen exceet's
development resources in the field of electronics for medical applications.
ID Management & Systems (IDMS) was able to increase net sales by 26.6% to
EUR 12.9 million (Q1 2013: EUR 10.2 million) and to move the product mix
towards higher margin products improving the EBITDA margin from 5.1% to
6.9% with an EBITDA of EUR 0.9 million (Q1 2013: EUR 0.5 million).
The revenue increase was positively impacted by major shipments to a large
European loyalty program provider, which the group has already announced in
the previous reports.
exceet Secure Solutions (ESS), the re-branded former Embedded Security
Solutions Segment, achieved sales of EUR 1.8 million during the reporting
period (Q1 2013: EUR 0.8 million). This significant sales improvement is
clearly driven by the work of ESS for conceptualizing, developing and
implementing the heart (encryption) of the telematics infrastructure for
the German electronic health card (eGK).
Furthermore, ESS initiated major strategic changes and is now focusing on
two clearly defined growth markets: Secure Communication (with a specific
focus on Machine-to-Machine Communication) and exceet's Multi-Identity
Solution (eMIS). eMIS has been developed over the past year and is a
multifunctional, multi-access and highly secure mobile access solution.
exceet's profit for the period of EUR 0.4 million (Q1 2013: EUR 3.2
million) includes a loss of EUR 1.0 million which was a result of the
revaluation of warrants (Q1 2013: gain of EUR 3.4 million). The adjusted
profit for the period excluding the warrant revaluation improved
significant to EUR 1.4 million (Q1 2014: loss of EUR 0.2 million).
The generated free cash flow of EUR 1.8 million (Q1 2013: minus EUR 3.4
million) reduced net debt further to EUR 5.1 million (31.12.2013: EUR 7.0
million).
Outlook for 2014
The outlook for the coming quarters remains optimistic. The management is
certain that further growth and profitability margin improvement can be
accomplished.
Greenock S.à r.l., a major shareholder of exceet Group SE, has recently
informed the com-pany that it is currently assessing its strategic options
related to its shareholding in exceet Group SE, including a possible
disposal of such shareholding to a third party. Pursuant to the information
provided by Greenock S.à r.l., no final decision has yet been taken
regarding the form and timing of the potential transaction. In the interest
of exceet Group SE, the company's board of directors intends to cooperate
with Greenock S.à r.l. in the course of such transaction.
The complete Interim Management Report on the first three months 2014 and
the actual Investor Relation Presentation are available at
http://www.exceet.lu
Please contact for further information:
Wolf-Günter Freese, CFO
investor.relations@exceet.lu
exceet Group SE,
115 avenue Gaston Diderich,
L-1420 Luxembourg
Phone +352 26 29 91 22
ISIN LU0472835155 (Public Shares), Regulated Market, Prime Standard,
Frankfurt/Main
ISIN LU0472839819 (Public Warrants), Regulated Market, General Standard,
Frankfurt/Main
exceet will announce half-year results for 2014 on 8 August 2014 (after
closing of the market).
About exceet:
exceet is an international technology group specialized in the development
and manufacturing of intelligent, mission critical and secure electronics
with small and mid-size volumes. The group provides highly sophisticated
solutions and distinguishes through its technical skill set in embedded
intelligent electronics with a leading position in the health, industry &
security markets. exceet consists of 6 manufacturing sites in the heart of
Europe and 7 technical sales & development centers for customer proximity
to ensure smooth and close communication for innovative solutions and
attractive time-to-market for the customer.
End of Media Release
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Issuer: exceet Group SE
Key word(s): Enterprise
02.05.2014 Dissemination of a Press Release, transmitted by DGAP - a
company of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
DGAP's Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements,
Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.
Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de
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Language: English
Company: exceet Group SE
114, avenue Gaston Diderich
L-1420 Luxemburg
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Phone: +352 2600 3181
Fax: +352 2600 3133
E-mail: info@exceet.ch
Internet: www.exceet.ch
ISIN: LU0472835155, LU0472839819
WKN: A0YF5P, A1BFHT
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard);
Freiverkehr in München
End of News DGAP-Media
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266231 02.05.2014
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 02, 2014 15:06 ET (19:06 GMT)
