Grenke AG — Earnings Release 2006

Oct 4, 2006

News Details

Ad-hoc | 4 October 2006 07:56

GRENKELEASING AG: The volume of new business rose by 9.6 % in the first nine months of 2006, in line with expectations

Ad hoc announcement transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— Baden-Baden, 4 October 2006: GRENKELEASING closed the first nine months of 2006 with a volume of new business – i.e. the total acquisition costs of newly purchased leased assets and receivables – of EUR 332.7 million (against last year’s comparable figure of EUR 303.6 million). This corresponds to a growth in new business of 9.6 % compared to the same period of the previous year. The group continued to record dynamic business growth abroad. All in all, its business in foreign markets grew by 21.4 % year-on-year and contributed 35.1 % (first nine months of 2005: 32.0 %) to the group’s new business. Its French subsidiary achieved a growth rate of 25.0 %. In Switzerland, business improved by 5.9 %, while in Germany new business also rose slightly by 4.1 %. The new business generated by the group’s franchise partners increased by 205.8 % to a figure of EUR 34.6 million (first nine months of 2005: EUR 11.3 million). The CM1 margin (contribution margin 1 at acquisition value) again exceeded our 10 % target margin in the first nine months of 2006. It amounted to EUR 34.1 million in the first nine months of this year (first nine months of 2005: EUR 35.4 million). The company will publish its detailed nine months report for 2006 on 26 October 2006. The Executive Board Should you have any queries, please contact: Renate Hauss Tel.: 07221/5007-204 Fax: 07221/5007-112 E mail: investor@grenkeleasing.de Internet: http://www.grenkeleasing.de ————————————————————————— Information and Explaination of the Issuer to this News: “In line with our expectations, the growth momentum of our new business slowed down somewhat in the third quarter. The key cause of this, in addition to the usual seasonality of the summer months, was that our sales force was redirected to an even stronger focus on return on equity. Though this had a dampening effect on volume growth, we already expect a positive impact on the profitability of our new business in the past quarter, which is expected to show in contribution margin 2. Despite this dampening effect on the growth of new business, for the full year 2006 we expect to not only achieve the volume target of our new business (growth of around 10 %) but also to achieve our target of double-digit profit growth”, explained Uwe Hack, CFO of GRENKELEASING AG. The group recorded 83,231 leasing enquiries in the first nine months of 2006 (ex-Germany: 34,687), leading to the generation of 42,310 new leasing contracts (ex-Germany: 15,761). The average value per transacted contract came to EUR 7,864 and is thus again higher than in the previous year (first nine months of 2005: EUR 7,364). Furthermore, after a detailed analysis of our business model, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s has confirmed our issuer rating of BBB+ for long-term liabilities, describing the outlook as stable. Together with the successful issue of our first ABS bond in August, we have thus set the course for continuingly favourable refinancing facilities. The company now has operations in 16 European countries. GRENKELEASING is represented in 20 cities throughout Germany. In addition to its six French branch offices and three 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, Norway, and Hungary. GRENKELEASING mainly offers small-ticket IT leasing contracts, i.e. for products such as PCs, 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.grenke.de. (c)DGAP 04.10.2006 ————————————————————————— Language: English Issuer: GRENKELEASING AG Neuer Markt 2 76532 Baden-Baden Deutschland Phone: +49 (0)7221 50 07-204 Fax: +49 (0)7221 50 07-112 E-mail: investor@grenkeleasing.de WWW: www.grenkeleasing.de ISIN: DE0005865901 WKN: 586590 Indices: SDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Stuttgart, München, Düsseldorf, Hamburg End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————