In the first half of 2011, the Group realised revenues of DKK 3,900 million, or a rise of 17% on the first half-year of 2010, organic growth accounting for 8 percentage points. All three Group business activities have contributed fairly to this rise.
The Group's core business, wholesale of hearing devices, has realised unit growth of well over 16% and has thus captured significant market shares in a global hearing device market that is thought to have grown by 4% measured in instruments sold.
Operating profits (EBIT) totalled DKK 806 million, or a rise of 21% on the first half-year of 2010. The reported profit margin for the period under review is 20.7%, matching an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year. If adjusted for the acquisition of Otix Global, the consolidated profit margin for the first half-year is 22.1%.
In the period under review, free cash flows (excluding acquisitions) totalled DKK 490 million against DKK 149 million last year and have thus more than tripled.
For 2011, we expect corporate wholesale of hearing devices in terms of value to exceed market growth by 6-8 percentage points (against a previous forecast of 4-8 percentage points).
With the launch of the world's smallest, fully wireless hearing aid, Oticon Intiga, the strongest product portfolio in the hearing aid industry will be further strengthened.
With interest-bearing liabilities, net, of about DKK 1.5 billion at 30 June 2011, we expect to resume our share buyback programme quite soon. Going forward, we expect to use free cash flows (with the deduction of acquisitions) to buy treasury shares.
