The dynamics of the world economy lost something of its power in the current year, but nevertheless the German boom continues to be in healthy shape. Apart from an overall positive global economic environment, domestic demand has contributed considerably to the upswing. In fact, domestic growth has replaced export as the most important driving force of economic growth. Business investments have increased vigorously. The information technology sector has profited here as well.
The business climate in the hightech sector remains good. According to a survey conducted by the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), 80% of the polled software companies and IT service providers reckon with increased sales volume in 2007.
The sustained high level of customer investment is reflected in the financial data of Pironet NDH. Sales improved by 27.8% to 40.4 million euros after 9 months. The returns also show an upward trend. The EBT margin increased overproportionally, whereas the EBIT grew underproportionally. More than triple the amount of amortization (2.3 million euros) on intangible assets in consequence of the investment offensive in 2005/2006 as well as acquisition expenditures retarded the profit momentum. The EBIT rose by 17.6% to 2.0 million euros, while at the same time the EBIT margin dropped from 5.6% to 5.0%. This effect, however, was more than compensated by the strong plus in the financial results, which more than doubled to 0.9 million euros (previous year: 0.4 million euros). The performance before taxes could thus be raised by nearly 40% from 2.1 to 2.9 million euros.
On the closing date of 30 September Pironet NDH had liquid assets of 27.3 million euros (26.9 million euros), including assets maintained for commercial purposes. That corresponds to 1.87 euro per share. The company continues to operate without bank debts.
The interactive service provider nexum AG contributed the strongest growth to the corporate group. Furthermore, the company has joined the market for people search engines, a fresh market highly praised in advance of performance. As part of this thrust it has acquired 25.1% of myON-ID Media GmbH, which is now working full speed to expand its reputation management portal myonid.de into the first German-based people search engine.
Sinfos GmbH maintained the continuous upward trend. The cooperation negotiations with the US firm Agentrics are now in their final phase. The planned cooperation would result in the world's largest master data pool and give the company flagship status on the market.
The ICT Outsourcing division is also doing very well. Numerous new customers have continually boosted the state-of-the-art computer center's degree of utilization. The responsible persons are particularly proud that Microsoft has designated Pironet NDH a Software as a Service (SaaS) partner in the international Incubation Center Program. As part of this initiative, Pironet NDH thus now belongs to the circle of currently ten especially qualified Microsoft partner companies in the world. This will help us further accelerate the positive growth trend for SaaS solutions and successfully implement our initiated strategy on the market.
Pironet NDH has headed confidently into its year-end business. The overall target for the whole year remains to exceed the "sound barrier" of 50 million euros with an overproportional profit margin.
If no fundamental changes or unexpected special effects to this scenario occur, then a dividend proposal may be made to the Supervisory Board and Annual Stockholders Meeting for the first time since the company's founding.
The business climate in the hightech sector remains good. According to a survey conducted by the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), 80% of the polled software companies and IT service providers reckon with increased sales volume in 2007.
The sustained high level of customer investment is reflected in the financial data of Pironet NDH. Sales improved by 27.8% to 40.4 million euros after 9 months. The returns also show an upward trend. The EBT margin increased overproportionally, whereas the EBIT grew underproportionally. More than triple the amount of amortization (2.3 million euros) on intangible assets in consequence of the investment offensive in 2005/2006 as well as acquisition expenditures retarded the profit momentum. The EBIT rose by 17.6% to 2.0 million euros, while at the same time the EBIT margin dropped from 5.6% to 5.0%. This effect, however, was more than compensated by the strong plus in the financial results, which more than doubled to 0.9 million euros (previous year: 0.4 million euros). The performance before taxes could thus be raised by nearly 40% from 2.1 to 2.9 million euros.
On the closing date of 30 September Pironet NDH had liquid assets of 27.3 million euros (26.9 million euros), including assets maintained for commercial purposes. That corresponds to 1.87 euro per share. The company continues to operate without bank debts.
The interactive service provider nexum AG contributed the strongest growth to the corporate group. Furthermore, the company has joined the market for people search engines, a fresh market highly praised in advance of performance. As part of this thrust it has acquired 25.1% of myON-ID Media GmbH, which is now working full speed to expand its reputation management portal myonid.de into the first German-based people search engine.
Sinfos GmbH maintained the continuous upward trend. The cooperation negotiations with the US firm Agentrics are now in their final phase. The planned cooperation would result in the world's largest master data pool and give the company flagship status on the market.
The ICT Outsourcing division is also doing very well. Numerous new customers have continually boosted the state-of-the-art computer center's degree of utilization. The responsible persons are particularly proud that Microsoft has designated Pironet NDH a Software as a Service (SaaS) partner in the international Incubation Center Program. As part of this initiative, Pironet NDH thus now belongs to the circle of currently ten especially qualified Microsoft partner companies in the world. This will help us further accelerate the positive growth trend for SaaS solutions and successfully implement our initiated strategy on the market.
Pironet NDH has headed confidently into its year-end business. The overall target for the whole year remains to exceed the "sound barrier" of 50 million euros with an overproportional profit margin.
If no fundamental changes or unexpected special effects to this scenario occur, then a dividend proposal may be made to the Supervisory Board and Annual Stockholders Meeting for the first time since the company's founding.
