CENTROTEC posts further increase in revenue and operating result - positive outlook for full year confirmed

In the first half of the 2012 financial year the revenue of the SDAX-listed company CENTROTEC Sustainable AG grew by 5.3 % to EUR 246.7 million (previous year EUR 234.3 million), the highest-ever total for a first half. Growth continues to be driven by gains in the core segment Climate Systems, especially in the core market Germany and in certain markets and product areas in Europe for climate control and ventilation technology. Organic growth here reached 3.0 %, in market conditions that remain challenging; including the subsidiary Dreyer & Bosse, which has been fully consolidated since Q3 2011, revenue rose by 9.9 % to EUR 177.3 million (previous year EUR 161.4 million). Business in the Gas Flue Systems segment was weaker due to the prevailing economic conditions especially in a number of international markets, and together with the reduced revenue base following the restructuring of the portfolio, revenue fell by 4.7 % to EUR 49.4 million (previous year EUR 51.8 million). In the Medical Technology & Engineering Plastics segment, the revenue total of EUR 20.1 million was 5.2 % down on the very strong prior-year figure (EUR 21.2 million), in part due to the restructuring of the portfolio last year, but the performance of the continuing operations was fundamentally positive.

The operating result showed a clearly above-average improvement relative to revenue at both EBITDA level, which rose 11.3 % to EUR 19.3 million (previous year EUR 17.4 million) and EBIT level, which gained 10.1 % to EUR 9.0 million (previous year EUR 8.2 million). This reflects the first fruits of the restructuring, along with the fact that the purchased materials ratio was much lower than the previous year's record levels, even if still high. Nevertheless, with the investment result remaining negative at EUR -3.1 million (previous year EUR -1.2 million) largely due to the performance of CENTROSOLAR Group AG and the interest result virtually constant, earnings before tax (EBT) were reduced by around one-quarter to EUR 3.1 million (previous year EUR 4.1 million). The high effective tax rate - though significantly lower than in Q1 but influenced by non-recurrent and seasonal effects - led to earnings after tax (EAT) of EUR -0.1 million (previous year EUR +1.9 million). Taking minority interests into account, this therefore produced positive earnings per share (EPS) of EUR 0.02 (previous year EUR 0.12).

Based on the revenue and earnings figures achieved in the first half of 2012 in a challenging overall economic environment, a year-on-year rise in revenue and EBIT in the range of EUR 35 to 40 million are achievable for 2012 as a whole, thus coming close to the previous record-breaking year of 2010.