Grenke AG — Earnings Release 2004

May 13, 2004

News Details

Ad-hoc | 13 May 2004 08:04

GRENKELEASING AG: 23 per cent profit increase

Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– GRENKELEASING AG: 23 per cent profit increase Baden-Baden, May 13, 2004: GRENKELEASING AG’s earnings before interest, taxes and valuation of financial instruments (EBIT) rose by 52 per cent from EUR 6.4 million to EUR 9.8 million in Q1 of this year. However, due to IAS/IFRS accounting, the company posted a valuation expenses balance of EUR 1.7 million on its financial instruments. GRENKELEASING AG thus achieved earnings before taxes (EBT) of EUR 8.1 million in Q1 2004. This means an increase of 27 percent against last year’s comparable of EUR 6.4 million. After-tax profits increased by 23 percent to EUR 4.8 million (compared to EUR 3.9 million in Q1 2003). As already reported in advance, the company’s new business (i.e. the total acquisition costs of newly purchased leased assets) rose by 16 per cent in Q1 2004, increasing from EUR 75 million in 2003 to its present level of EUR 88 million. The margin of new business (contribution margin1), from which the financial result over the life of a contract is derived and which is thus a key profitability indicator, grew superproportionally in Q1 2004 to a level of EUR 10.0 million against last year’s comparable of EUR 7.9 million, representing an increase of 26 per cent. IFRS earnings per share rose year-on-year from EUR 0.29 to EUR 0.35. The full three months report for 2004 is available under http://www.grenkeleasing.de Investor Relations – Figures. The Executive Board Should you have any queries, please contact: GRENKELEASING AG, Neuer Markt 2, 76532 Baden-Baden Renate Hauss Tel: +49(0)7221/5007-204 Fax: +49(0)7221/5007-112 E-mail: investor@grenkeleasing.de Internet: http://www.grenkeleasing.de end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 13.05.2004 Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad-hoc-announcement: “Compared to the previous quarter, we were able to keep our costs level – despite a higher volume of business. This has again improved our cost/income ratio,” said Wolfgang Grenke, Chairman of the Executive Board, commenting on the company’s quarterly result. He went on to say that the valuation expenses of EUR 1.7 million for the company’s financial instruments pursuant to IAS 39 ultimately represented the anticipation of future expenses, thus reducing the calculated interest expenses over the remaining 10 quarters to maturity of the company’s debut bond, issued in the autumn of last year. In addition, given the improved share price performance, the company had set aside provisions for employee stock option programmes. “If our earnings nevertheless grow significantly beyond the 20 per cent mark, needless to say we would be very happy”, said Mr. Grenke in summary. He added that he took a rather critical view of accounting rule IAS 39, since it obviously reduced the transparency of financial statements for the shareholders. He explained that, at GRENKELEASING, application of the latter led to a volatility in profit reporting – albeit with a falling tendency – over the remaining term of the bond, thus requiring continuous additional explanations. The number of employees rose from 263 in 2003 to currently 288 (as per closing date of the balance sheet, excl. executive board). On May 4, 2004, the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders approved of a dividend payout of EUR 0.33 per share for 2003. 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. GRENKELEASING is also due to start up the operative side of its business in Ireland shortly, having already set up two financing subsidiaries there. 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. 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 130804 Mai 04