EANS-News: S&T AG registers strong growth in the third quarter of 2014 - record
amount of orders on hand promises further rise in 2015
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9-month report
* Consolidated income for the first three quarters of 2014 increases to EUR
7.4 million (2013: EUR 6.2 million)
* Sales climb to EUR 253.6 million (2013: EUR 238.3 million)
* Highly-profitable Appliances technologies segment grows by 66%
S&T AG (www.snt.at) accelerated its growth during the first nine months of the
2014 financial year. Its revenues for the third quarter came to EUR 88.8 million
(2013: 80.7 million). Its revenues for the first nine months amounted to EUR
253.6 million (2013: EUR 238.3 million).
The positive ramifications of cost-cutting measures and improvements rendered in
processes increasingly manifested themselves in the results achieved. The EBITDA
in the third quarter came to EUR 5.2 million (2013: EUR 4.4 million); for the
nine months, to EUR 15.1 million (2013: EUR 12.5 million). Consolidated income
in the third quarter amounted to EUR 2.4 million (2013: 2.1 million). The total
for the three quarters was EUR 7.4 million (2013: EUR 6.2 million). The
achievements caused the key indicators of earnings to rise by 20% on a y-on-
y basis. The earnings per share for the nine months came to 17 cents, as opposed
to 15 cents in the previous period of comparison.
Driver of growth was once more the Appliances segment. Its sales for the first
nine months rose by EUR 18.2 million to EUR 45.7 million (2013: EUR 27.5
million). This partially ensued from the acquisitions made in 2014 of companies
operating in the smart energy sector. The Services Eastern Europe segment
registered convincingly steady growth. Its sales rose by EUR 3.1 million to EUR
144.4 million (2013: EUR 141.3 million). The positive development of both
segments more than offset the drop in sales registered by the Services in
Germany, Austria and Switzerland (formerly Products) segment. This drop was a
product of corporate strategy, and was induced to yield rises in average
margins. The sales achieved by the latter segment amounted to EUR 63.6 million
(2013: EUR 69.4 million).
The gross margin has developed gratifyingly well in financial year 2014,
increasing from 32.5% to 33.5%. This rise is attributable to two effects. One of
them is the strong, 66% rise in sales achieved in 2014 by the high-margin
Appliances technologies segment. Driven by the new Smart Energy business area,
this segment's growth - expressed in absolute terms - will be even greater in
2015. The second effect is that of the purposeful implementation of the "Red
Flag" program. This program complements or replaces on a step-by-step basis
sales earned from hardware featuring especially low margins with those from
services. The implementation of this program is already achieving its intended
effects: gross margin rose from 19.6% to 23.1%. Further increases are expected
for the future. The gross margins achieved by the Appliances (55.8%) and
Services Eastern Europe (31.0%) segments were stable.
Operative expenditures were also further optimized. Costs had amounted in the
first nine months of 2013 to a mere 31.7% of the sales (EUR 75.5 million). This
percentage was further improved upon during the first nine months of 2014 by 0.9
percentage points, and thus amounted to 30.8% of sales (EUR 78.2 million).
S&T's assets, finances and liquidity continue to be stable and to evince the
company's potential for further growth. As of September 30, 2014, its liquid
funds came to EUR 33.4 million (31.12.2013: EUR 42.9 million). The Group's net
liabilities amounted to EUR 10.6 million (31.12.2013: EUR 9.3 million). Equity
increased as of 30.09.2014 to EUR 90.7 million (31.12.2013: EUR 71.2 million).
This boosted the equity rate to 37.4% (31.12.2013: 32.4%).
As of the end of the third quarter of 2014, S&T's orders on hand came to a
record EUR 157.3 million - up from the EUR 106 million three months ago.
Overcoming the
decline in sales experienced by the Products/hardware segment, expected for 2014
as a whole are record consolidated sales of at least EUR 375 million, a 10% y-
on-y rise. This will be powered by an all-time corporate best fourth quarter.
Consolidated income is set to outpace that. It is expected to exceed EUR 12
million for the year. This is a strong rise over 2013's adjusted result. S&T's
gratifyingly large amount of orders on hand is leading its management to
forecast the Group's achieving in 2015 a 20% rise in sales, which will come to
some EUR 465 million.
About S&T AG:
S&T AG (www.snt.at, ISIN AT0000A0E9W5, WKN A0X9EJ, SANT) is listed on the Prime
Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. S&T's some 2,200 employees
staff subsidiaries and offices in 20 countries. S&T has a wide-ranging portfolio
of products and services. Many of them feature proprietary technologies. These
are in the cloud, security and mobile IT solutions sector. This portfolio is
supplied throughout the Central and Eastern Europe region. In 2014, S&T entered
the "smart energy" market. S&T's successful development of the market has been
driven by the taking of a 40% stake in the California-based Networked Energy
Services Corp.
Further inquiry note:
ir@snt.at; +431801911125;
end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: S&T AG
Industriezeile 35
A-4021 Linz
phone: +43 664 6119214
FAX: +43 1 80191 1290
mail: ir@snt.at
WWW: www.snt.at
sector: Computing & Information Technology
ISIN: AT0000A0E9W5, DE000A1HJLL6
indexes:
stockmarkets: regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt
language: English