HOMAG Group AG increased its sales revenue in the third quarter of 2011 by 20 percent to EUR 204.6 million compared to the prior year (EUR 171.0 million). As one of the mechanical engineering companies that feels any shift in the economic cycle at an early stage, the world’s leading manufacturer of machines and production lines for the wood-processing industry and cabinet shops has noticed early indications of a potential cooling down in the global economy. For instance, order intake was slightly down year on year to EUR 129.0 million between July and September (prior year: EUR 136.0 million). By contrast, order backlog rose to EUR 221.8 million as of September 30, 2011 (prior year: EUR 202.6 million).

Apart from an improvement in sales revenue, the HOMAG Group also saw its profitability improve in the third quarter of 2011, both compared to the prior year and compared to the first two quarters of 2011. “Here we can see the impact of our cost cutting measures that we adopted and implemented in response to the poorer results for the first six months of 2011,” CEO Dr. Markus Flik emphasizes. “These include a restrictive recruiting policy and clear targets to reduce other operating expenses.”

Initial positive effects of these measures are reflected in the operative EBITDA before employee participation expenses and before extraordinary expenses from restructuring measures. This increased in the third quarter of 2011 by 25 percent to EUR 17.1 million (prior year: EUR 13.7 million). The employee participation expenses for the third quarter of 2011 came to EUR 1.6 million (prior year: EUR 1.2 million), while extraordinary expenses stood at EUR 0.4 million (prior year: EUR 0.8 million). EBT after employee participation expenses and after extraordinary expenses improved to EUR 6.0 million (prior year: EUR 1.3 million). The net profit for the period after non-controlling interests came to EUR 2.7 million (prior year: EUR 0.3 million), and leads to earnings per share of EUR 0.17 (prior year: EUR 0.02).

The HOMAG Group’s headcount as of September 30, 2011 increased to 5,147 employees (prior year: 5,040 employees). Most of the new jobs were created in the foreign production and sales companies operating in growth markets.

First to third quarters of 2011
In the first nine months of 2011, the Group’s sales revenue increased by 12 percent to EUR 578.9 million (prior year: EUR 517.1 million) while order intake was up 7 percent to EUR 468.1 million (prior year: EUR 436.1 million). Sales revenue to date contains EUR 25.0 million from a large-scale project with the Russian customer Mekran, which has a total contract volume of about EUR 58 million. The good results of the third quarter led to improved earnings KPIs between January and September 2011. For instance, operative EBITDA before employee participation expenses and before extraordinary expenses climbed to EUR 45.7 million (prior year: EUR 41.4 million). After employee participation expenses and after extraordinary expenses, EBT increased to EUR 11.0 million (prior year: EUR 7.5 million). The net profit for the period after non-controlling interests improved to EUR 4.3 million (prior year: EUR 3.1 million), leading to earnings per share of EUR 0.27 (prior year: EUR 0.20).

Outlook
Subject to the condition that the economic prospects do not become even more gloomy, the management board of the HOMAG Group confirmed its forecast for the full year 2011. The management board therefore still expects at least a mid-single-digit percentage increase in sales revenue coupled with slight growth in order intake. Operative EBITDA is expected to remain at the prior-year level (EUR 65.1 million). As the Company had already announced in October 2011, it expects to incur a slight net loss for the year. This is due to the extraordinary expenses for the planned expansion of restructuring measures totaling about EUR 20 million. Most of this figure will affect earnings in the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to CEO Flik, the outlook for 2012 is still dominated by substantial uncertainty at present. “The prospects for the global economy have dimmed and our customers have become somewhat more cautious. At the same time, we are still seeing promising enquiries underscoring the continued keen interest in our products”. Against this backdrop, the management board aims to maintain sales revenue in 2012 at the level of 2011, after eliminating the extraordinary impact of the large-scale project with Mekran. “As regards order intake and operative EBITDA we also intend to match the level of 2011 and we expect to earn a net profit again in 2012”, concludes CEO Flik.

Disclaimer
This press release contains certain statements relating to the future. Future-oriented statements are all those statements that do not pertain to historical facts and events or expressions pertaining to the future such as “believes”, “estimates”, “assumes”, “forecasts”, “intend”, “may”, “will”, “should” or similar expressions. Such future-oriented statements are subject to risks and uncertainty since they relate to future events and are based on current assumptions of the company, which may not occur in the future or may not occur in the anticipated form. The company points out that such future-oriented statements do not guarantee the future; actual results including the financial position and the profitability of the HOMAG Group as well as the development of economic and regulatory framework conditions may deviate significantly (and prove unfavorable) from what is expressly or implicitly assumed or described in these statements. Even if the actual results of the HOMAG Group including the financial position and profitability as well as the economic and regulatory framework conditions should coincide with the future-oriented statements in this press release, it cannot be guaranteed that the same will hold true in the future.