GRENKELEASING AG / Miscellaneous 02.07.2009 Release of a Adhoc News, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - New business of the GRENKE Group reaches EUR 228.5 million in the first half 2009. Contribution margin 2 of new business of the GRENKE Group reaches EUR 39.7 million in the first half 2009 and with CM2 margin at 19.5 % (leasing business) exceeding the all-time high of Q1-2009 - Focus remains on liquidity, profitability and risk management Baden-Baden, July 2, 2009: As had already been the case in the first quarter of 2009, in view of the further deterioration of macroeconomic activity, we actively reduced the GRENKE Group's new business focusing increasingly on the profitability of our new business, especially on growth of our contribution margin (CM) in order to provide a buffer for potentially increasing defaults. The scheduled reduction of the volume of new business of the GRENKE Group (incl. franchise partners) - i.e. the sum total of acquisition costs of newly purchased leasing assets and factoring volume - of EUR 228.5 million in the first half of 2009 (HY1- 2008: EUR 284.1 million) continues to have a positive effect on the Group's liquidity situation and equity capital ratios. Thanks to this targeted management measures, we are also reducing the anticipated average credit risk in new business. At the same time, as regards CM1 (CM1 margin of 13.7%) and especially CM2 (CM2 margin of 19.5%) in relation to the volume of new leasing business, in the first half of 2009 we exceeded the record value of the first quarter of 2009. Against the background of the current stabilisation of overall economic trends, we will readjust our management from the third quarter 2009 on and return to focusing on increased volume growth in particular CM2. The Group's management will continue to concentrate on liquidity and risk management issues. Growth of new business this year will be determined by the state of the refinancing markets as well as our management with regard to profitability and risk structure. The focus of the Group's management will be on the development of CM2. After we succeeded in pushing our CM2 margin up significantly in the first half of the year, for fiscal 2009 as a whole we plan to achieve CM2 volume-growth of 5-10%. The fact that there still is demand for leasing even in the current phase of overall economic weakness is reflected in the number of inquiries we receive (70,589 in the previous year, compared with 72,146 in the first half 2009), particularly in view of the lower number of working days in the second quarter of 2009. However, during the first half we did not accept any inquiries that did not meet our increased CM2 requirements or did not match our risk profile; as a result, our conversion rate in the GRENKE Group fell from 48.5 % last year to 39.2 % in the first half of 2009, and international from 47.6 % last year to 35.3% in the first half 2009. The international segment contributed a share of 46.8 % to the new business of the GRENKE Group (previous year: 47.6 %). Considering the 20.8% reduction in our volume of new business, the fact that our CM2 margin was up by 4.4% illustrates the very positive trend of profitability in our international business. We were particularly restrictive in handling our new business volume in selected foreign markets. In contrast, we generated positive growth rates in the Netherlands, in the factoring business and in the franchise segment, but in terms of their absolute volume, these still belong to our smaller markets. New business volumes in EUR million HY1-2009 HY1-2008 % change GRENKE Group including franchise partners 228.5 284.1 -19.6 - of which: Germany 121.6 149.0 -18.4 - of which: International 107.0 135.1 -20.8 -GRENKE Group leasing business* 201.8 259.7 -22.3 Franchise partners 47.2 39.0 20.9 - of which Factoring business (Germany) 26.7 24.4 9.5 * excl. factoring New business from leasing by foreign markets in EUR million HY1-2009 HY1-2008 % change France 39.7 64.0 -38.0 Switzerland 6.8 8.5 -20.4 Italy 11.2 15.1 -26.1 Spain (incl. franchise Madrid) 7.1 8.9 -20.2 United Kingdom 5.4 8.8 -38.1 Poland 5.3 6.6 -19.0 Netherlands 5.4 5.1 6.4 The CM1 margin of the GRENKE Group's leasing operations (contribution margin 1 at acquisition values), at 13.7 % in the first half of 2009, substantially exceeded our target margin of 10% and the previous year's margins, reaching a value of EUR 27.7 million (HY1-2008: EUR 28 million - comparative figure for leasing operations). The corresponding CM2 amounts to EUR 39.4 million and is stable in relation to the previous year, on a reduced volume level of new business (HY1-2008: EUR 39.0 million). As a result, measured according to CM2 we succeeded in concluding highly profitable new leasing business in the first half of 2009 in spite of increased refinancing costs. Development of contribution margin 2 (CM2) in EUR million HY1-2009 HY1-2008 % change GRENKE Group including franchise partners 39.7 39.3 1.0 - of which: Germany 17.6 18.1 -2.9 - of which: International 22.1 21.2 4.4 GRENKE Group leasing business* 39.4 39.0 1.2 Franchise business 4.0 2.5 60.9 France 9.0 9.7 -7.7 Switzerland 1.5 1.8 -18.6 Italy 1.8 2.1 -17.1 Spain (incl. franchise Madrid) 1.3 1.4 -10.3 United Kingdom 1.2 1.3 -7.8 Poland 0.7 0.7 -7.7 Netherlands 1.2 0.9 26.9 * exkl. Factoring The profit margin in relation to the factoring volume of EUR 26.7 million amounted to 1.8 % (HY1-2008: 2.2 %). This margin relates to the average period of a factoring transaction, amounting to approx. 30 days (HY1-2008: approx 35 days). The reduction in the factoring margin is essentially related to the reduction of the average period and has no impact on profitability. In the first half of 2009 GRENKE Group recorded a total of 72,146 leasing inquiries (ex Germany 43,676) and of which 28,248 new leasing contracts (ex Germany 15,414) were generated. The average value per contract concluded came to approx. EUR 7,145 and decreased compared to the previous year (HY1-2008: EUR 7,590). The company will publish its detailed Quarterly Financial Report as per June 30, 2009 on July 28, 2009. The Executive Board End of ad-hoc --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information and Explaination of the Issuer to this News: 'Growth in CM2-margin and the profitability of new business of the GRENKE Group were very successful in the first half of the current fiscal year in the light of the exceptional economic trends. The development of the contribution margins shows that the GRENKE Group is well prepared for the currently difficult overall economic phase. Against the background of the current stabilisation of overall economic trends, we will readjust our management from the third quarter 2009 on and return to focusing on increased volume growth in particular regarding CM2. The ongoing positiv trend in inquiries demonstrates that sufficient demand for leasing existsis. The Group's management will continue to concentrate on liquidity and risk management issues. ' explained Dr. Uwe Hack, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of GRENKELEASING AG. He added: 'Growth of new business this year will be determined by the state of the refinancing markets as well as our management with regard to profitability and risk structure. The focus of the Group's management will be on the development of CM2. After we succeeded in pushing our CM2 margin up significantly in the first half of the year, for fiscal 2009 as a whole we plan to achieve absolute CM2 volume-growth of 5-10%.' The GRENKE Group (including franchise partners) operates in twenty European countries and is represented at 20 locations in Germany as well as a total of 32 locations abroad. The GRENKELEASING AG Group (excluding franchise partners) operates with subsidiaries in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Czechia. In February 2009, GRENKELEASING AG acquired the Hamburg-based private bank Hesse Newman & Co. AG (a private bank since 1777), which continues to trade as GRENKE BANK AG. GRENKE Group has a franchise system in place in Finland, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain (Madrid) and Hungary as well as in the Car Leasing and Factoring Division in Germany. GRENKELEASING offers contracts predominantly in the field of small-ticket IT leasing for such products as PCs, notebooks, copiers, printers or software of a relatively low asset value. GRENKELEASING AG is listed on the Prime Standard of Frankfurt's Securities Exchange and is part of the SDAX. The shares of GRENKELEASING AG are listed on the SDAX of the Frankfurt Securities Exchange under the identification code GLJ, ISIN DE0005865901. Information about the company and its products is available for download on the Internet, at http://www.grenke.de http://www.grenkebank.de; http://www.grenkefactoring.de Should you have any queries, please contact: Renate Hauss Tel.: +49 -7221/5007-204 Fax: +49 - 7221/5007-112 E-mail: Internet:http://www.grenke.de, htthttp://www.grenkebank.dep://www.grenkebank.de, htthttp://www.grenkefactoring.dep://www.grenkefactoring.de DGAP 02.07.2009 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language: English Issuer: GRENKELEASING AG Neuer Markt 2 76532 Baden-Baden Deutschland Phone: +49 (0)7221 50 07-204 Fax: +49 (0)7221 50 07-112 E-mail: investor@grenke.de Internet: www.grenke.de ISIN: DE0005865901 WKN: 586590 Indices: SDAX Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin, Stuttgart, München, Düsseldorf, Hamburg End of News DGAP News-Service ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DGAP-Adhoc: GRENKELEASING AG: New Business in the first half 2009
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