Koenig & Bauer AG

Earnings Release • Mar 29, 2007

News Details

Ad-hoc | 29 March 2007 10:45

Koenig & Bauer AG: big jump in sales and earnings in 2006

KOENIG & BAUER AG / Final Results

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.

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Group sales climbed 7.5% to €1,741.9m (2005: €1,621m), the highest level in
KBA’s 189-year history. While a total of €1,649.7m for new bookings
represented a double-digit improvement on 2004, which had been boosted by
the Drupa trade fair, it was 6.7% down on the record figure for 2005 of
€1,768.9m. President and CEO Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann attributed this to
the smaller number of major newspaper and gravure contracts put up for
tender. An increase in shipments trimmed the order backlog to €948.7m at
the end of the year, from €1,040.9m in 2005. A high level of capacity
utilisation at KBA’s production plants and efficiency gains from
restructuring the web press division enabled the group to boost operating
profit from €33.3m in 2005 to €46.2m. While the financial profit was no
more than modest, pre-tax earnings (EBT) soared to €47.4m (2005: €25.8m),
net group profit to €34.3m (2005: €18.5m). Earnings per share thus came to
€2.11 (2005: €1.14). Although the export level of 82.7% was marginally
higher than in 2005 (81.9%), group profitability in the fiercely
competitive global press market was hit by the weakness of the Japanese
yen, the US dollar and the Swiss franc against the euro, by higher steel
and energy prices and by an increase in unit labour costs, which together
wiped out some of the cost savings and productivity gains made. At the AGM
on 19 June in Würzburg management and the supervisory board will propose a
dividend of 50 cents per share, up from 40 cents in 2005. €8.2m of the
parent’s net profit of €16.1m (2005: €6.5m) will be paid out as dividends,
€7.9m reinvested. Despite softer sales of multi-unit web presses, KBA
management is confident that group sales and pre-tax earnings in 2007 will
be roughly on a par with 2006.

Further details will be released at midday at a press conference in
Würzburg.

DGAP 29.03.2007

Language: English
Issuer: KOENIG & BAUER AG
Friedrich-Koenig Straße 4
97080 Würzburg Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)931 909-4835
Fax: +49 (0)931 909-6015
E-mail: bernd.heusinger@kba-print.de
www: www.kba-print.de
ISIN: DE0007193500
WKN: 719350
Indices: SDAX
Listed: Amtlicher Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), München;
Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart

End of News DGAP News-Service

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