Grenke AG — Earnings Release 2001

Jan 2, 2002

News Details

Ad-hoc | 2 January 2002 08:19

Grenke Leasing AG english

GRENKELEASING AG continues to show strong growth Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– Baden-Baden, January 2, 2002: GRENKELEASING’s new business grew by 33 percent in Q4, compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus the growth picked up ( Q3: +27,5 percent) compared to the Q3. GRENKELEASING AG was able to close the year 2001 with a result of EUR 234.5m in new business, compared to a figure of EUR 178m in 2000 – i.e. the total acquisition costs of newly purchased leased assets. This corresponds to a growth of new business for the entire year of 31.5 percent. The margin of new business (contribution margin 1), from which stems the financial result over the life of a contract, grew distinctly by 70 percent compared to the previous year. GRENKELEASING’s foreign subsidiaries contributed super proportionally to the company’s performance. The figure for foreign new business rose by 138 percent and thus represents a contribution of 22.5 percent to the group’s overall new business. GRENKELEASING posted 36 percent more leasing inquiries in the fiscal year 2001 than over the same period in 2000. As a result, 36.020 new leasing contracts were concluded (+28 percent). The company will publish its annual accounts on February 26, 2002. The Board of Management GRENKELEASING AG, Rheinstrasse 219, 76532 Baden-Baden – Renate Hauss Tel: +49(0)7221/5007-204 Fax: +49(0)7221/5007-203 E-mail: investor@grenke.de Internet: http://www.grenkeleasing.de end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 02.01.2002 Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad-hoc-announcement: “The surveys (2000/01) conducted by the Ifo Institute confirm our estimation that economic slowdowns have little impact on the trend in our new business since leasing as a financial instrument is gaining in significance”, explains Wolfgang Grenke, chairman of the board of GRENKELEASING AG. The improvement in margin, according to the company, is largely due to the sustained improvement in the company’s refinancing conditions on the back of the IPO which took place a year ago. A part of the increase in earnings resulting from contribution margin 1 will, in view of the general economic situation, be allocated to risk provisioning. The opening up of a branch office in Memmingen has increased the company’s presence at national level to a total of 17 branch offices. The number of foreign branch offices has thus risen to nine. In addition to its three branch offices in France, the company has respective subsidiaries in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, and the Netherlands. Our Internet subsidiary Weblease now provides online leasing services to 7 countries: France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. Within the scope of a cooperation agreement with ADT Sicherheitstechnik GmbH, a subsidiary of the world’s leading security company, Tyco, all ADT branch offices throughout Germany have the opportunity to offer their customers an online leasing solution. For ADT this cooperation represents a significant step towards expanding its small-ticket business. The goal of a cooperation between Weblease and asknet AG, which runs the Internet portal www.softwarehouse.de and which, according to its own statements, is the second largest seller of online software, is the introduction of an e- commerce solution. As already reported, GRENKELEASING AG and Develop GmbH have concluded a framework agreement in the digital copying and printing technology sector. This for the first time provides Develop dealers with the opportunity to offer their customers leasing contracts in cooperation with GRENKE. 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. Since April 4, 2000 the company has been quoted on the Neuer Markt (market segment for high-growth companies) at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is thus the first leasing company in this segment of the exchange. 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 020819 Jän 02