Plenum AG

Earnings Release • Aug 29, 2007

News Details

Ad-hoc | 29 August 2007 08:26

plenum AG: Growth strategy is successfully driven forward

plenum AG / Half Year Results

Release of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG, transmitted by
DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Ad hoc – Announcement of plenum AG: Growth strategy is successfully driven
forward

• Core business -Management Consulting - grows by 36% during first half of
2007

• Gross margin jumps to 29% (prior year period: 15%)

• Communications segment under review

Wiesbaden, August 29, 2007 - plenum AG (Prime Standard, ISIN DE 0006901002)
generates sales revenues of EUR 11.2 m for the first half of 2007 (prior
year period: EUR 12.7 m). Excluding the software business sold at the end
of 2006, the sales revenues from the remaining sales segments were about
EUR 10.4 m for the comparative prior period.

Growth incurred from plenum's core business - Management Consulting. Gross
sales revenues as such climb by EUR 1.9 m or 36% to EUR 7.2 m during the
first half of 2007 compared with the first half of 2006. The segment result
(EBIT) total of TEUR 301 for the first half of 2007 is about 17% above the
prior year’s period figure. As a result of the strong development in the
consulting business, the Group's gross profit significantly moves ahead by
EUR 1.3 m to EUR 3.3 m. The gross margin of 29% of sales revenues (prior
year period: 15%) almost doubles.

Gross sales from the communications business, which no longer belongs to
the core business, declines by about 19% to EUR 4.5 m compared with the
first half of 2006. Analogous to the sales development in the
communications segment, the segment result (EBIT) of TEUR minus 243 also
diminishes (first half of 2006: TEUR 89). Overall, the communications
business remained substantially below the expectations for 2007 and is
currently being examined.

Following the refocusing on Management Consulting during the years from
2004 to 2006, plenum has driven its growth strategy forward in its core
business since the beginning of 2007 by means of the five strategic
initiatives as follows:

• 30% expansion in consultancy capacities; completed during the first
half-year period

• developing innovative consulting products for the insurance industry

• positioning plenum FZ LLC in Dubai as a pure consulting firm; concluded
and already about 17% of total consulting revenues of EUR 7.2 m are
generated from the United Arab Emirates during the first half-year period

• acquisition of consulting firms in Germany; negotiations currently in
progress that could lead to positive results still in this year

• optimizing the communications business; all options are currently being
reviewed.

These initiatives have adversely affected the first half of the year as
expected by about EUR 1.2 m. Despite these investments, the second quarter
2007 closes with improved earnings (EBIT) of TEUR minus 281 over the prior
quarter (Q1 2007: TEUR minus 349). Overall, this led to a Group net result
of T€ minus 517. The Group result improved by about T€ 125
quarter-on-quarter to T€ minus 196 in Q2 2007.

The investments will pay off already in the second half of 2007 and will
positively affect the results. In particular, the consulting business will
continue to grow. The order backlog sees an 18% jump over the prior
quarter. Our objective remains to gradually raise plenum's EBIT margin to
12% starting 2008. Corresponding with this objective, we will also realign
the optimization measures for the communications segment.

The company's interim consolidated financial statements for the six-month
period ending 30 June 2007 will be disclosed on 29 August 2007.

Regarding plenum AG:

plenum AG (Prime Standard, ISIN DE0006901001) is a leading German
Management Consulting Firm focusing on solutions for strategic task
completion as part of the industrialization of service providers,
particularly financial service providers and energy suppliers. Its core
competencies include marketing and communications, business process
optimization and outsourcing, IT-efficiency and IT-Outsourcing as well as
Human Resources and Skill Management. The chain of services runs from
strategy development right up to monitoring successful implementation.

Information and comments from the issuer of this report:

This report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties due to current expectations, estimates, predictions and
fore-casts as well as the use of estimates by the management of plenum AG.
Such forward-looking comments comprise the predictions of budgets,
strategies and outlooks. Forward-looking statements can also be identified
by words such as 'anticipates', 'expects', 'preliminary', 'plans',
'predicts', and similar terms. Forward-looking statements are no guarantees
of future performance and the Company's actual results may differ
significantly from the results discussed in this section.

Regarding further information or inquiries, please contact:

plenum AG
Investor Relations
Hagenauer Str. 53
65203 Wiesbaden
Tel.: +49 (0)611-9882-0
Fax: +49 (0)611-9882-496
Email: aktie@plenum.de
Internet: www.plenum.de

Investor Relations
FINREL GmbH – financial relations –
Stefan Bülling
Barnerstr. 14
22765 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 (0)40-39834-641
Fax: +49 (0)40-39834-649
Email: info@finrel.de
Internet: www.finrel.de

29.08.2007 Financial News transmitted by DGAP

Language: English
Issuer: plenum AG
Hagenauer Straße 53
65203 Wiesbaden
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)611 9882-361
Fax: +49 (0)611 9882-496
E-mail: aktie@plenum.de
Internet: www.plenum.de
ISIN: DE0006901002
WKN: 690100
Indices:
Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Stuttgart;
Freiverkehr in Berlin, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf

End of News DGAP News-Service

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