Plenum AG

Earnings Release • Feb 18, 2005

News Details

Corporate | 18 February 2005 02:34

plenum AG: Preliminary Consolidated Financial Statements, 2004:

Ad hoc announcement §15 WpHG Preliminary Financial Statements plenum AG: Preliminary Consolidated Financial Statements, 2004: Ad hoc announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— plenum AG: Preliminary Consolidated Financial Statements, 2004 Wiesbaden, February 18, 2005 According to preliminary figures, plenum AG slightly increased its revenues by 2% in financial year 2004 to Euro 41.0 million (previous year: Euro 40.3 million). Development of revenues in the three divisions remained stable, to a great extent, compared to the previous year. However, the value creation (percentage of own business of turnover) dropped by approximately Euro 2 million. At 42% share of turnover, business development was decisively affected by the Phoenics project. The negotiation results at the end of this project, which has been running for three years and which, at Euro 40 million, is the largest project in the history of the plenum company, led to an additional burden on profit. Related to delays in project assignments in December, a total loss of Euro 1.5 million had to be borne in this quarter. For that reason, against expectations, it was not possible to achieve a positive annual result. According to the preliminary figures, a consolidated loss of Euro -1.7 million (previous year: Euro +0.2 million) will be reported. However, at the same time, it was possible to book incoming orders for maintenance and further development of the Phoenics software amounting to a total of approximately Euro 5 million. The expertise in industrial software production that has been built up in the Phoenics project was enhanced in spring 2004 by the strategic partnership with Polaris (5000 software developers in six software factories in India). Since many companies have not yet created the organisational prerequisites for successful cooperation with an Indian software factory, hardly any large offshore projects are being awarded at present. Currently, plenum is supporting many companies to orientate itself around this new form of software production. In financial year 2005, plenum AG will concentrate its range of services even more intensely on services that require intensive consulting as well as on the management and design of the technical and organisational implementation in order to withdraw from the ongoing price war for pure programming. Closer organisational and personnel interlocking of the systems and consulting lines of business that is related to this positioning was already initiated at the end of 2004 and will be completely implemented during the course of the financial year. The positive turnover trend of the Consulting division confirms this strategic positioning. The sales revenues in the first three months of the current financial year are expected to increase by 10%. As a result of this focus, the Executive Board of plenum AG expects a clear increase of the value creation in 2005. They intentionally decided against a pure implementation business with a high percentage of external services to the detriment of the turnover development in order to extensively avoid the ongoing price pressure in this context. Therefore, from today’s perspective, a considerable drop in turnover with an increase in value creation is expected in 2005 on the whole. Since the special effects from a major project of the dimensions of Phoenics are not to be expected in 2005, the earning power of the company from operational business will increase considerably. The continuing solid base of liquid assets makes it still possible to finance the company’s development independently. The reserves of liquid assets at the end of the past financial year were at Euro 6.6 million (previous year: Euro 8.1 million). At the end of January, the liquid assets increased according to expectations to approximately Euro 8 million. More detailed information about the preliminary annual financial statement for 2004 can be found in the press release that was released today. The complete 2004 annual report can be found at www.plenum.de as of 07.04.2005. Additional information Hubert Sand Manager of Corporate Communication plenum AG Tel.: + 49 (0) 611 – 98 82 – 0 Fax: + 49 (0) 611 – 98 82 – 1 50 email: aktie@plenum.de plenum AG Hagenauer Str. 53 65203 Wiesbaden Deutschland ISIN: DE0006901002 WKN: 690100 Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard) und Stuttgart; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover und München End of ad hoc announcement (c)DGAP 18.02.2005 Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad hoc announcement: Information and Explanations for this ad hoc Report by the Issuers This report contains future-orientated statements that are based on current expectations, estimates, predictions, and forecasts as well as on the assessments and assumptions of the management of plenum AG. Such statements include statements about plans, strategies, and outlooks. Words such as “expect”, “most likely”, “preliminary” and similar expressions identify such future-orientated statements. These statements are not guarantees of future results and contain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are in part very difficult to foresee. Therefore, the actual consequences and results could deviate considerably from what has been stated in the future-orientated statements. End of message (c)DGAP 180204 Feb 05