Grenke AG — Earnings Release 2002

Nov 12, 2002

News Details

Ad-hoc | 12 November 2002 08:52

Grenke Leasing AG english

GRENKELEASING AG reports a further positive trend in growth and earnings Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– GRENKELEASING AG reports a further positive trend in growth and earnings Baden-Baden, November 12, 2002: GRENKELEASING posts earnings before taxes of EUR 17.6m for the first nine months of 2002. This means an increase of 24 per cent against the corresponding figure of EUR 14.2m in the previous year. After-tax profits increased by 23 per cent to EUR 10.8m (compared to EUR 8.8m over the same period of the previous year). DVFA earnings per share rose from EUR 0.65 to EUR 0.80. As already reported in advance, the group’s new business (i.e. the total acquisition costs of newly purchased leased assets) also rose by 23 per cent in the first nine months of 2002. The volume of new business came to EUR 200m (first nine months of 2001: EUR 162m). The margin of new business (contribution margin 1), from which the financial result over the life of a contract is derived and which is thus a key indicator of profitability, grew correspondingly to EUR 20m, as compared to a figure of EUR 16m in the previous year. GRENKELEASING’s foreign subsidiaries again achieved superproportional increases. The figure for foreign new business rose by 41 per cent and thus represents a contribution of 26 per cent to the group’s overall new business. On the other hand, domestic business also showed a strong growth rate of 19 per cent in the first nine months. The full nine months report for 2002 is available under www.grenkeleasing.de – Investor Relations – Figures. The Executive Board If you have any queries, please contact: GRENKELEASING AG, Neuer Markt 2, 76532 Baden-Baden Renate Hauss Tel: +49 (0) – 7221/5007-204 E-mail: investor@grenkeleasing.de Internet: http://www.grenkeleasing.de end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 12.11.2002 Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad-hoc-announcement: “The favourable nine months figures for new business and earnings point towards further strong growth for the full year 2002. We also see a bright future ahead of us, since leasing is being increasingly favoured as an alternative vehicle to investment loans. Long-term observations of the financing pattern of trade and industry have shown that lease financing arrangements are preferred to classical loans when the markets are weak. In actual fact the leasing ratio is on the rise again in Germany in 2002”, says Wolfgang Grenke, Chairman of the Executive Board of GRENKELEASING AG. Furthermore the positive trend at GRENKELEASING was particularly notable not least because the management had, in the face of a weak economy, already focused strongly on risk management the year before: “When in doubt we dispensed with additional new business in cases where a customer’s creditworthiness was not up to par. All early indicators show that we are on the right path.” The company has a workforce of 279 employees (weighted average on a full-time basis) as opposed to 225 in the previous year. GRENKELEASING presently maintains 18 domestic branch offices. The opening up of a branch office in Nantes has increased the company’s presence in France to a total of 4 branch offices. Its successful foreign operations are to be further expanded. GRENKELEASING presently has 10 foreign business locations. In addition to its French branch offices, it has one subsidiary each in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, and the Netherlands. The transition of its Danish cross-border business to a legally independent subsidiary will occur in the next few days with the opening up of its Copenhagen location. The preparations for the planned expansion to Great Britain and Scandinavia are going according to schedule. In Germany a further branch office will be opened up in Rostock at the start of 2003. GRENKELEASING AG is Germany’s nationwide market leader in small-ticket IT leasing, i.e. for products such as PC’s, notebooks, copiers, printers, or software up to an acquisition value of EUR 25,000. The company has been listed on the stock exchange since 2000. Information on the company and its products is available on the Internet under http://www.grenkeleasing.de ——————————————————————————– WKN: 586590; ISIN: DE0005865901; Index: Listed: Neuer Markt in Frankfurt; Freiverkehr in Berlin, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 120852 Nov 02