CENIT AG Systemhaus / Final Results
31.03.2008
Release of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aerospace industry and financial service providers identified as drivers
of growth in 2008
Stuttgart, 31 March 2008 At the annual shareholders meeting on 30 May
2008, the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board will propose to
distribute a dividend of 50 cents per share to shareholders and to retain
1.7 m as reserves. This equals a current dividend yield of over 7%. With
a dividend payout of approx. 4.18 m , the management thus underlines its
positive expectations for 2008.
Annual Report 2007
CENITs 2007 business year was characterized by decisive course-setting,
with important investments toward growing internationalization, recruitment
of first-rate staff, as well as expansion of the software business. On 31
December 2007, the number of Group-wide employees was 636 (2006: 576) a
satisfactory plus of 10 percent despite a market shortage of qualified
staff and a fluctuation rate of 11%.
During the 2007 business year, CENIT achieved consolidated sales of 77.1 m
(2006: 82.4 m / -6%). The gross surplus is 58.4 m (2006: 59 m / -1%).
EBITDA attained 9.5 m (2006: 11.1 m / -14%). During the reporting
period, EBIT fell by 18% from 10.2 m to 8.4 m . The year ended with an
EBT of 9 m (2006: 10 m / -10%) and a consolidated EPS of 0.73 (2006:
1.00 ). The dip in earnings is rooted in lower PLM software proceeds as
well as delays in IBM product sales for our software solutions.
Asset and Financial Situation
The Groups asset situation is highly positive. On the balance-sheet date,
shareholder equity amounted to 26.2 m (2006: 24.3 m ), accounting for an
equity ratio of 72% (2006: 62%). On the balance-sheet date, the total of
bank deposits and short-term securities amounted to 18.3 m (2006: 18.6 m
). There are no liabilities, short- or long-term, in relation to credit
institutions. CENIT currently does not avail itself of any granted lines of
credit. The operative cash flow attained 9.9 m (2006: 10.3 m ), and the
free cash flow rose to 5.6 m (2006: 3.6 m ).
Development of Orders
As at 31 December 2007, Group-wide orders on hand amounted to 16.9 m
(2006: 18.2 m ), and incoming orders for 2007 totaled approx. 79.6 m
(2006: 84.8 m ).
Breakdown of Sales by Group Business Segments
CENITs PLM business segment achieved sales of 48.6 m (2006: 53.9 m ).
The EIM business segment achieved sales totaling 28.5 m (2006: 28.5 m ).
Sales in the service sector remained virtually unchanged on-year at 46.60 m
(2006: 46.79 m ), making it the strongest contributor to sales with a
share of 61%. Over the past business year, sales of CENIT software amounted
to 9.18 m (2006: 11.24 m / -18%). Thus, approx. 12% of overall sales can
be attributed to CENITs proprietary software. Sales of non-CENIT software
rose by 35% to 12.60 m (2006: 9.36 m ), thus accounting for 16% of total
sales. The hardware business contracted as expected, by 42% to 8.68 m
(2006: 14.98 m ). This equals approx. 11% of total CENIT sales.
Foreign Subsidiaries
Over the past business year, CENIT (Switzerland) AG was able to achieve
sales proceeds of 3.9 m (2006: 2.8 m ), with EBIT of 2.2 m (2006: 1.1
m ).
With sales of 5.9 m (2006: 4.6 m ), CENIT North America Inc. achieved
EBIT totaling 0.5 m (2006: 0.4 m ).
During the 2006 business year, CENIT established a subsidiary in Romania.
In the field of application management and software development, CENIT is
now in a position to offer its products and services far more
competitively. The subsidiary is currently in the build-up stage and is to
be further expanded in 2008. With sales of 0.4 m (2006: 0.03 m ), CENIT
SRL was able to achieve EBIT of 0.06 m (2006: 0.01 m ).
During the 2007 business year, CENIT also established a subsidiary in
France. This is likewise in the set-up phase. CENIT SARL achieved sales of
0.06 m (previous: 0 ), accounting for EBIT of T -3 (previous: T 0)
On 27 December 2007, CENIT AG succeeded in acquiring our long-term PLM
competitor and highly successful Dassault Systèmes partner cad scheffler,
and to integrate it into the Group effective 1 January 2008 .
Outlook
With our strategic orientation towards attractive markets for product
lifecycle management, enterprise information management and application
management outsourcing, as well as our focus on our core competencies
within these fields, CENIT will continue to invest in the consulting and
software markets in 2008 and 2009. The targeted investment in important
growth fields will also be necessary in future, both to cement our leading
role and to expand our strong existing market position. Our competency in
the field plays a decisive role in this respect. Meanwhile we possess an
excellent market reputation in the aerospace industry, not only in the
European but also the US aerospace industry. We also expect significant
sales growth in the financial service provider sector. The sectors
investment needs for EIM solutions are rising steeply, e.g. for audit-safe
archiving and compliance fulfillment requirements. In addition, the
fundamental factors of CENITs balance sheet continue to offer the
enterprise the stability and also the necessary dynamics to be able to
invest freely and independently in the growth markets relevant to CENIT,
even with a view to the expected future business climate. After all, the
risk remains that the financial market tensions triggered by the US
sub-prime crisis will remain and lead to a major overall slowdown of
economic growth.
In terms of consolidated sales, we expect a return to clear gains in 2008,
and growth in line with the market in 2009. Particularly the rising
earnings from the sale of CENITs proprietary software and our world-wide
sales cooperation for our software products with our partners IBM, SAP und
Dassault should contribute to improved consolidated results. In the
consulting field, we expect growing demand from the aerospace industry. The
enterprise information management sector already saw above-market growth in
2007 and will again profit from a positive investment climate for EIM
solutions in 2008. For the years 2008 and 2009, our goal is to ensure
sustainable improvement in the Groups operative performance.
Over the coming years, we will continue to push forward our activities in
the US, particularly in the software sector, together with SAP, Dassault
Systèmes and as of 2008 also with the Right Hemisphere Corporation. The
new collaboration and world-wide sales cooperation with Right Hemisphere
will open up new potential on the US market which will positively affect
CENITs sales of non-proprietary software and the associated services.
The build-up of our subsidiary for software development and application
management outsourcing services in Romania is a further important step
towards enhancing CENITs future competitiveness.
In addition, the integration of cad scheffler offers us access to important
new customers and market shares in the PLM field. This integration is a
major task for CENIT in 2008 and is intended to make positive contributions
to the Groups results in the coming years.
Our new commitment in France represents an important bridge to our key
account EADS. Important course-setting for the future will be made and
filtered here.
To be able to rise even more successfully to future important EADS
challenges, the three leading consulting and software providers as
specialists for industrial solutions, application development and product
lifecycle management (PLM), namely CS Communication & Systèmes, Paris,
CENIT AG, Stuttgart, and PROSTEP AG, Darmstadt, have established a joint
venture for the mutual key account EADS. The collaboration acts under the
name CenProCS AIRliance GmbH. The three joint venture partners are pursuing
a common goal: to create customized solutions for EADS. The association
offers all three enterprises the opportunity to participate in major
projects and thus to consolidate or expand their official status as
strategic IT service providers. This ensures global and efficient service
and software quality. In concert with our two partners, CENIT can now act
in the interest of EADS Airbus in Germany, France, Spain, and the UK, as
well as in the US, India and Romania a competitive edge that should not
be underestimated.
In 2008, we plan to increase our staff numbers by 10%. Should the trend
continue, further staff increases can be expected for 2009.
About CENIT: Since 1988, the Company has been active as a
specialist for product lifecycle management, enterprise content management
solutions and application management outsourcing. CENIT is listed on the
Prime Standard of Deutsche Börse and currently employs more than 650 staff.
Among others, CENIT serves clients such as Allianz, BMW, Daimler, EADS
Airbus, LBS, Metro and VW. It also numbers many medium-sized enterprises
among its customers, particularly from the automotive industry and
mechanical engineering, e.g. Dürr, Georg Fischer, Leoni or Webasto.
http://www.cenit.de
Address queries to:
CENIT AG Systemhaus,
Fabian Rau
Industriestraße 52-54, D-70565 Stuttgart
Tel.:+497117825-3185
Fax:+49711782544-4185
Email: f.rau@cenit.de
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information and Explaination of the Issuer to this News:
Additional information: This press/ad hoc report may contain
future-oriented statements regarding the business, financial and earnings
situation of, as well as profit projections for, CENIT. Such
future-oriented statements are characterized by terms or statements such as
'the company may' or 'the company will', 'expects', 'assumes ', 'is
considering', 'intends to', 'plans', 'believes', 'will continue to' and/or
'estimates', as well as similar terms and statements. Such statements
contain no guarantee that the projections will in fact be achieved. Rather,
such statements involve risks, imponderables and assumptions that are
difficult to predict and, in addition, are based on assumptions as to
future events which may prove to be incorrect. For this reason, actual
events may diverge significantly from the assumptions contained in the
above statement. In a future-oriented statement by which CENIT expresses
expectations or assumptions with regard to future events, these
expectations or assumptions are made in good faith, and shall be assumed to
have been made upon an appropriate basis; however, it cannot be guaranteed
that the said statements, expectations or assumptions shall indeed occur,
be attained or fulfilled. The actual operative result may diverge
significantly from such future-oriented statements and is subject to
certain risks. In this regard, please refer to the Business Report of CENIT
AG Systemhaus.
DGAP 31.03.2008
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language: English
Issuer: CENIT AG Systemhaus
Industriestraße 52 - 54
70565 Stuttgart
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)711 78 25 - 30
Fax: +49 (0)711 78 25 - 4000
E-mail: aktie@cenit.de
Internet: www.cenit.de
ISIN: DE0005407100
WKN: 540710
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Stuttgart;
Freiverkehr in Berlin, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf
End of News DGAP News-Service
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DGAP-Adhoc: CENIT AG Systemhaus: CENIT proposes 50-cent dividend
| Source: EQS Group AG