Kontron AG (formerly S&T AG)

Earnings Release • Feb 12, 2002

News Details

Ad-hoc | 12 February 2002 07:47

Gericom AG english

GERICOM SALES IN 2001 LIKELY TO BE UP BY 62% Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– Linz, February 12, 2002: During the 2001 financial year, GERICOM, which is listed on the “New Market” in Frankfurt (WKN 565 773), achieved record sales growth. According to provisional figures, the mobile computing specialist raised its sales to EUR 540 m. This corresponds with growth of 62% over the 2000 total (EUR 333 m). Sales in 2001 were also well above the figure of EUR 433 m contained in the published planning of the IPO. Above all, this record growth derived from the sales success of GERICOM notebooks, which are characterised through latest technology and an excellent price/performance ratio. Indeed, as a result of the strong increase in promotion business with large, pan-European retail chains, notebook sales more than doubled. Internationalisation was also pursued with success in 2001. Only 77% of sales (2000: 88%) derived from the core German and Austrian markets, where GERICOM became the market leader in 2001. Outlook Following the highly satisfactory course of business during the fourth quarter of 2001, in which many notebook purchases were made in advance, the first quarter of 2002 will contribute substantially smaller to the whole year than the first quarter of 2001. Sales in the unusually strong first quarter of last year amounted to EUR 163 m (sales growth of 104% as compared to 1st Q. 2000). In the middle of March, GERICOM will launch the fastest available P4-notebook onto the market, which offers Bluetooth and full CPU performance throughout more than 2.5 hours of battery running time. The two months late marketing of the P4- notebook is due to the only recent agreement with Intel concerning the use and marketing of P4 processors for notebooks in the home area. The P4-notebook shall accelerate sales growth of GERICOM starting from the middle of March. The management board of GERICOM reiterates the sales target for 2002 of EUR 640 m, which was established during the IPO. This corresponds with the long-term growth strategy to which GERICOM holds unchanged since the IPO. Contact: Michaela Hochreiter, Investor Relations Manager, Tel: +43-732-7664- 9113, Fax: +43-732-7664-113, Mobil:+43-664-185 3371, E-Mail: hochreiter@gericom.com end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 12.02.2002 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 565 773; ISIN: AT0000729108; Index: Listed: Neuer Markt in Frankfurt; Freiverkehr in Berlin, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 120747 Feb 02