Grenke AG — Earnings Release 2004

Jul 2, 2004

News Details

Ad-hoc | 2 July 2004 07:54

GRENKELEASING: growth picks up

Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– GRENKELEASING: growth picks up Baden-Baden, July 2, 2004: GRENKELEASING reports EUR 175 million in new business in HY1 2004 (previous year: EUR 146 million). GRENKELEASING closed the first half of 2004 with earnings in new business – i.e. the total acquisition costs of newly purchased leased assets – of EUR 175 million. Its new business grew by 19 per cent against the previous year. 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 profitability indicator, grew in HY1 2004 to a level of EUR 20 million against last year’s comparable of EUR 16 million, representing an increase of 24 per cent. Growth in its new business was particularly strong abroad, reaching 36 per cent – particularly in France where the figure was 45 per cent. GRENKELEASING’s foreign subsidiaries made a 26 per cent contribution to the group’s new business. Its domestic new business grew by 14.5 per cent. The company will publish its detailed six months report on August 12, 2004. The Executive Board Should you have any queries, please contact: GRENKELEASING AG, Neuer Markt 2, 76532 Baden-Baden, Germany Renate Hauss Tel: +49-7221/5007-204 Fax: +49-7221/5007-112 E-mail: investor@grenkeleasing.de Internet: http://www.grenkeleasing.de end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 02.07.2004 Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad-hoc-announcement: “What is undoubtedly a very positive result has to be relativised somewhat: in HY1 2004 we had two additional working days over the previous year, corresponding to additional new business of around EUR 2.5 million. It must also be taken into account that our growth in France benefited from a basis effect. Last year we significantly increased our credit worthiness requirements in France, thus limiting our new business there. Nevertheless, we have achieved strong growth despite retaining our cautious risk policy. The average value per leasing contract grew to EUR 6,933 in Q2 2004 (Q1: EUR 6,721). The margin of new business thus fell slightly from 11.4 per cent to 11.3 per cent since there is a lower internal rate of return on leasing instalments with larger acquisition values. We have raised our full-year expectations slightly: depending on the continuing economic trend, we now expect our new business to grow between 16 per cent and 22 per cent. Our EBT should improve still further, although this depends on whether we manage to clear the exercise hurdle of our employee stock option programme from 2000. If our stock price rises above EUR 33.12 on average between July 9 and August 5, this would fulfil the prerequisite of an average 15per cent share price increase per year. EBT would then be reduced by around EUR 4 million,” explained Wolfgang Grenke, Chairman of the Executive Board of GRENKELEASING AG. The group recorded 51,349 leasing enquiries in HY1, leading to the generation of 25,600 new leasing contracts. The average value per concluded contract came to EUR 6,823 and thus remains practically unchanged (HY1 2003: EUR 6,813). The company now has operations in 13 European countries. GRENKELEASING is represented in 20 cities throughout Germany. In addition to its four French branch offices, the company has one subsidiary each in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. In the UK and Poland GRENKELEASING is using a franchise system to limit the costs during the start-up phase and nevertheless achieve a high degree of identification with the strategic targets of the group among the newly employed workers who are located there. This means that GRENKELEASING AG does not have a direct stake in the locally operating company and instead provides the know-how, the operating infrastructures, and services within the scope of a franchise agreement. Its operational business in Ireland is due to start up in HY2. The group already has two finance-providing subsidiaries there. GRENKELEASING AG is the German and Swiss 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. GRENKELEASING AG is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the German stock exchange in Frankfurt and on the SDAX (small-cap) index. Information on the company and its products is available on the Internet under http://www.grenkeleasing.de. ——————————————————————————– WKN: 586590; ISIN: DE0005865901; Index: SDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 020754 Jul 04