Grenke AG — Earnings Release 2005

Oct 27, 2005

News Details

Ad-hoc | 27 October 2005 07:23

GRENKELEASING AG: Significant On-Target Growth in New Business and Earnings

Ad hoc announcement §15 WpHG Nine Months Report 2005 GRENKELEASING AG: Significant On-Target Growth in New Business and Earnings Ad hoc announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— Baden-Baden, 27 October 2005: GRENKELEASING posts profit from ordinary operations (EBIT) of EUR 35 million for the first nine months of 2005. This corresponds to an increase of 20 % compared to a figure of EUR 29 million for the same period of the previous year. The group increased its after-tax profits by 12 % to EUR 21.7 million (compared to EUR 19.4 million in the first nine months of 2004). As already reported in advance, the company’s new business (i.e. the total acquisition costs of newly purchased leased assets) came to EUR 304 million in the first nine months of 2005 (compared to EUR 257 million over the same period of 2004), marking a year-on-year increase of 18.2 %. In Germany, the company’s new business grew by 9.6 % in the first nine months of the year. GRENKELEASING’s foreign subsidiaries accounted for 32 % of the group’s total new business. Its French subsidiary achieved growth of 33 %. Its Swiss business increased by 27 %. The contribution from abroad increased to 32 % from last year’s level of 27 %. The margin of new business (contribution margin 1) – a key profitability indicator of new business – improved to EUR 35 million in the first nine months of 2005 (against last year’s comparable figure of EUR 29 million), corresponding to an increase of 23 %. EPS (according to IFRS) rose from EUR 1.43 in the previous year to EUR 1.59 this year. The full nine months report for 2005 is available on the internet under http://www.grenkeleasing.de – Investor Relations – Financial Data. The Executive Board Should you have any queries, please contact: 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 report GRENKELEASING AG Neuer Markt 2 76532 Baden-Baden Deutschland ISIN: DE0005865901 (SDAX) WKN: 586590 Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart End of ad hoc announcement (c)DGAP 27.10.2005 Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad hoc announcement: “In view of our favourable growth rates in the first nine months of the year, particularly in our foreign markets, we hold fast to our full-year target of achieving last year’s growth level. We are again looking to achieve a significant double-digit growth in profit”, explains Uwe Hack, CFO of GRENKELEASING AG. “The trend in the cost/income ratio (showing the relation of costs to earnings) is particularly pleasing. It has continued to fall this year and amounts to 40.5 % after the first nine months against last year’s figure of 43.4 %. This makes it plain that we can still achieve economies of scale even with a strong growth in foreign sales.” The group recorded a total of 79,786 leasing enquiries in the first nine months of 2005, leading to the generation of 41,231 leasing contracts. The average value per concluded contract came to EUR 7,364, marking an increase over the previous year (9 months 2004: EUR 6,872). The new business was generated by 327 employees (9 months 2004: 274) working in the GRENKELEASING Group and 36 employees engaged in the franchise companies. As regards partnership initiatives, GRENKELEASING has renewed its cooperation with IBM, based on a framework agreement concluded in Germany as long ago as in 1992. Within the scope of this project, initially limited to several months, GRENKELEASING will carry out small-ticket contract generation and administration on behalf of IBM in Germany, France, Spain, and Belgium. The company now has operations in 15 European countries. GRENKELEASING is represented in 20 cities throughout Germany. In addition to its six French branch offices and two branch offices in Switzerland, the company has subsidiaries in Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, and Belgium. A franchise system gives GRENKELEASING a presence in the UK, Poland, and Norway. GRENKELEASING mainly offers small-ticket IT leasing contracts, i.e. for products such as PC’s, notebooks, copiers, printers, or software having relatively small transaction values. The company is the German and Swiss market leader in this segment. GRENKELEASING AG is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the German stock exchange in Frankfurt and has a listing on the SDAX (small-cap) index. Information on the company and its products is available on the Internet under http://www.grenkeleasing.de. End of message (c)DGAP 270723 Okt 05