Ad hoc Report in accordance with §15 WpHG
Stuttgart, 31 March 2010 – At the annual shareholders’ meeting on 28 May 2010, the Managing and Supervisory Boards of CENIT will propose payment of a dividend of 0.30 EUR per share. Over the course of the 2009 business year, CENIT has demonstrated that the enterprise can attain solid results even in the face of increasingly difficult and insecure economic framework conditions.
During the 2009 business year, CENIT Group achieved total sales of 86.5 m EUR (2008: 83.4 m EUR/+4%). Sales of non-proprietary software rose appreciably by approx. 33% to 24.62 m EUR (2008: 18.49), largely as a result of the Value-Added Reseller business of our partner Dassault Systèmes. Sales of CENIT’s proprietary software rose from 9.25 m EUR to 9.71 m EUR (5%). Turnover from services and consulting totaled 51.26 m EUR (2008: 52.60 m EUR/-3%). Other sales amounted to 0.9 m EUR (2008: 3.03 m EUR).
The gross profit totaled 59.4 m EUR (2008: 61.1 m EUR/-3%). CENIT attained EBITDA of 5.29 m EUR (2008: 6.19 m EUR/-14%) and EBIT of 3.89 m EUR (2008: 4.78 m EUR/-18%). Results per share were 0.33 EUR (2008: 0.40 EUR/-15%).
Participations/Foreign Holdings
CENIT (SWITZERLAND) AG, Frauenfeld/Switzerland
During the past business year, CENIT (Switzerland) achieved sales revenues of 3.3 m EUR (2008: 4.9 m EUR), accounting for EBIT of 0.76 m EUR (2008: 2.4 m EUR). In Switzerland, our focus lies on PLM solutions by Dassault Systèmes and EIM solutions by IBM. 5 staff members work with customers primarily from the manufacturing industry and the financial services sector.
CENIT NORTH AMERICA Inc., Auburn Hills/USA
CENIT North America Inc. attained sales of 6.2 m EUR (2008: 6.1 m EUR) and EBIT of
-0,2 m EUR (2008: -0.1 m EUR). In the USA, CENIT focuses on marketing our products in the field of SAP PLM and PLM. These efforts primarily address customers from the aerospace and manufacturing industries. 25 staff members are active in the service and sales segments.
CENIT SRL, Iasi/Romania
CENIT SRL accomplished total sales of 0.5 m EUR (2008: 0.7 m EUR), accounting for EBIT of 0.1 m EUR (2008: 0.2 m EUR). 21 staff members are active in service provision and software development.
CENIT France SARL, Toulouse/France
The association remains in the formative phase and primarily works with our customer EADS Airbus in Toulouse. CENIT France SARL achieved sales of 0.47 m EUR (2008: 0.3 m EUR) and EBIT of 0.06 m EUR (2008: 0.02 m EUR). 4 staff members assist EADS in project consulting and tendering procedures.
Incoming Orders
During the previous business year 2009, Group-wide incoming orders totaled 84.0 m EUR (2008: 105 m EUR). On 31 December 2009, orders in hand amounted to 27.7 m EUR (2008: 30.2 m EUR). There was a decrease in incoming orders from the manufacturing industry, particularly from the automotive industry. On the other hand, CENIT managed to attract important new customers from the financial services sector. However, a trend is not yet discernible.
Asset and Financial Status
There are no liabilities in relation to banks and lending institutions – neither short-term not long-term. On the balance-sheet date, equity capital totaled 28.1 m EUR (2008: 25.4 m EUR). The equity ratio equals 64%. (2008: 64%). On the balance-sheet date, bank deposits and securities totaled 19.5 m EUR (2008: 13.2 m EUR). The financial independence we derive from this situation permits us to manage our internal financing as appropriate to the course of business. In view of the restrictive lending practices of the credit institutions, this constitutes a competitive edge for CENIT and offers our customers the necessary investment security. The operative cash flow attained 9.3 m EUR (2008: 2.5 m EUR).
Employees
On 31 December 2009, the total number of staff Group-wide was 695 (2008: 721). Personnel costs during the reporting period totaled 40.6 m EUR (2008: 38.8 m EUR/6%)
2009 was characterized by a reduced workload, with annual average capacity utilization in the services sector at 70%. A major cause for this development was short-time work in CENIT’s auto industry customer segment, which affected more than 100 staff at CENIT. An additional obstacle to a growing product business was the investment reluctance of many customers from the manufacturing industry.
Outlook
The developments on the financial market and the global economic crisis have had a very serious impact on CENIT’s main sales markets, i.e. financial service providers and manufacturing enterprises. For this reason the Group is devoting maximum effort to reducing market dependence. At the same time, we are further expanding our range of software solutions and continuing to tune our portfolio to market demands. This also means maintaining and promoting the high, comprehensive service and consulting competence of CENIT’s staff in all addressed sectors and regions.
For the 2010 business year, we expect positive developments that build on the results achieved in 2009. Nevertheless, short-time work may again be required in 2010 so that we can adjust to our customer demand situation and retain our permanent staff pool. We expect that the global economy will emerge from the recession in 2011 at the latest, and that moderate growth will then resume. In summary: Provided that our business is not adversely affected by a prolonged economic slump, we intend to return to our long-term growth plan in 2010/2011.
Basic preconditions for our projections for the coming two years and thus the expected rise in CENIT’s earning power are stable overall political framework conditions and the assumption that the global crisis did indeed reach its low point in 2009. With solid capacity utilization in our services segment and a clear increase in our software business, we will be able to realize this growth in revenue.
Additional opportunities and risks may arise from developments in the automotive and aerospace industries as well as the financial services sector. A major contribution to positive development will have to be the correctness of our assumptions as to the market success of our software products. In addition, we also intend to seize the opportunities arising from our first public-sector customer projects. Here our software products can play a pioneering role in innovative technologies and processes for a sustainable and effective public administration.
The following factors should contribute to our sales and results objectives: We will continue our activities in the USA and in Europe. We want to profit from growth in the relevant market segments and attract new customers. The PLM business segment will concentrate increasingly on Dassault Systèmes and position itself as a strategic PLM consulting and software enterprise. This provides us with all the necessary prerequisites for becoming, in accordance with medium-term planning, the market leader for PLM projects. The enterprise information management (EIM) segment offers us opportunities in the field of administration and the public sector. In this area, we will also be able to draw on our cooperation with our partner IBM to seize important opportunities and achieve growth.
The complete 2009 Business Report is available in German and English at CENIT’s homepage: www.cenit.com
About CENIT: The enterprise has been active as a specialist for product lifecycle management, enterprise content management solutions and application management outsourcing since 1988. CENIT is listed on the Prime Standard of Deutsche Börse and currently employs about 700 staff. Among others, CENIT serves clients such as Allianz, W&W, Daimler, EADS Airbus, VR kreditwerk, BWB and Kuka. Many of our customers are medium-sized enterprises, particularly from the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors, e.g. Jungheinrich, Flow, Viessmann or Georg Fischer.
Please send queries to:
CENIT AG Systemhaus,
Fabian Rau
Industriestraße 52-54, D-70565 Stuttgart
Tel.:+49 711 7825-3185
Fax:+49 711 782544-4185
Email: f.rau@cenit.de
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.
