Ad hoc Report in accordance with §15 WpHG:
Stuttgart, 08 May 2008 – CENIT is starting the 2008 business year with considerable investments towards the training of service experts during the first Quarter of 2008, as well as the restructuring of the PLM software and service business. The latter led to a reduction of capacity in the PLM service sector which could not be compensated during the 1st Quarter. The restructuring efforts were necessary after it became clear that major customers would make important order decisions during the 2nd Quarter. To be able to react in a quick and customer-oriented way, CENIT thus made a number of advance investments which will have long-term effects on expected business trends in 2008 (which remain positive) and beyond. Staff and equipment costs rose accordingly. The number of staff increased by 15% to 650 (2007: 565). In marketing CENIT’s software solution FileNet System Monitor, our sales partner IBM has further intensified its sales activities. In the business segment Enterprise Information Management, capacity utilization remains excellent. CENIT has launched a training initiative to even better satisfy customer wishes in this segment. There has also been a delay in the startup of the new Value Added Reseller Model of Dassault Systèmes, which was re-launched this year. Here we were unable to achieve the expected sales volume, in part due to technical problems encountered by the administrative sector.
Overview of 1st Quarter Figures
After the first three months, Group-wide sales have contracted by 10% to 15.8 m € (03/2007: 17.6 m €). The gross surplus shrank to 13.8 m € (03/2007: 15.6 m €). EBITDA attained 0.6 m € (03/2007: 3.3 m €/-82%). EBIT during the reporting period amounted to 0.33 m € (03/2007: 3.0 m €/-89%). The pre-tax result (EBT) reached 0.54 m € (03/2007: 3.1 m €). The consolidated result was 0.5 m € (03/2007: 2.0 m €). Consolidated EPS (earnings per share) thus derive to 0.05 € per share (03/2007: 0.24 €). The operative cash flow was 0,7 m € (03/2007: 3.4 m €). On the balance-sheet date, the total of bank deposits and securities incl. current assets amounted to 16.0 m € (2007: 18,3 m €). The enterprise remains debt-free. Incoming orders reached approx. 32 m € (03/2007: 31.7 m €).
Breakdown of Earnings
The sales volume in the service sector contracted by 3% to a current 10.7 m € (03/2007: 11,0 m €), making it the strongest contributor to sales with a share of 68%. During the first three months of the current business year, sales of CENIT software amounted to 2.3 m € (03/2007: 3.3 m €/-30%). Thus, approximately 15% of total sales can be attributed to CENIT’s proprietary software. Sales of non-CENIT software increased by 21% to 1.9 m € (03/2007: 1.6 m €), thus accounting for 12% of total sales. The hardware business contracted by 49% to 0.9 m € (03/2007: 1.7 m €), equaling approx. 5% of CENIT’s total sales.
Holdings – Foreign Subsidiaries
CENIT (Switzerland) AG achieved sales of 1.0 m € (03/2007: 1.0 m €), with EBIT at 0.5 m € (03/2007: 0.6 m €)
CENIT North America Inc. was able to achieve sales of 1.1 m € (03/2007: 1.1 m €), attaining EBIT of -0.03 m € (03/2007: 0.009 m €).
CENIT SRL attained sales amounting to 0.2 m € and EBIT of 0.08 m €.
The CENIT company in Toulouse, France achieved sales of 0.07 m € and EBIT of 0.02 m €.
CAD Scheffler, the company integrated into the CENIT Group since January 2008, has developed as projected, attaining sales of 0.6 m € and EBIT of 0.05 m €.
Outlook
At the General Shareholders’ Meeting on 30 May 2008, the Executive and Supervisory Boards will propose disbursement to shareholders of a dividend of 50 cents per share and the retention of reserves in the amount of 1.7 m €.
Despite a regressive 1st Quarter, for the business year as a whole we expect a significant increase of Group-wide sales over 2007 levels. Particularly the increased earnings from the sale of CENIT’s proprietary software and the global sales cooperation for our software products with our partners IBM, SAP and Dassault should contribute to an improved Group result. In the consulting sector, we expect increased demand from the aerospace industry. The Enterprise Information Management segment already grew at above-market levels in 2007 and will also benefit in 2008 from a positive investment climate for EIM solutions. Our goal is to achieve a sustainable improvement in the operative performance of the Group.
Send queries to:
CENIT AG Systemhaus,
Fabian Rau
Industriestraße 52-54, D-70565 Stuttgart
Tel.:+497117825-3185
Fax:+49711782544-4185
E-Mail: aktie@cenit.de
About CENIT: Since 1988, the company has been active as a specialist for product lifecycle management, enterprise content management solutions and application management outsourcing. CENIT is listed on the Prime Standard of Deutsche Börse and currently employs more than 630 staff. Among others, CENIT serves clients such as Allianz, BMW, Daimler, EADS Airbus, LBS, Metro and VW. A large portion of customers are medium-sized businesses, particularly from the automotive sector and mechanical engineering, e.g. Dürr, Georg Fischer or Leoni.
Additional information: This press/ad hoc report may contain future-oriented statements regarding the business, financial and earnings situation of as well as profit projections for CENIT. Such future-oriented statements are characterized by terms or statements such as "the company may" or "the company will", "expects", "assumes ", "is considering", "intends to", "plans", "believes", "will continue to" and/or "estimates", as well as similar terms and statements. Such statements contain no guarantee that the projections will in fact be achieved. Rather, such statements involve risks, imponderables and assumptions that are difficult to predict and, in addition, are based on assumptions as to future events which may prove to be incorrect. For this reason, actual events may diverge significantly from the assumptions contained in the above statement. In a future-oriented statement by which CENIT expresses expectations or assumptions with regard to future events, these expectations or assumptions are made in good faith, and it shall be assumed that they are made upon an appropriate basis; however, it cannot be guaranteed that the said statements, expectations or assumptions shall indeed occur, be attained or fulfilled. The actual operative result may diverge significantly from such future-oriented statements and is subject to certain risks. In this regard, please refer to the Business Report of CENIT AG Systemhaus.
