EANS-News: Kapsch TrafficCom AG focusing on projects in the second half of
fiscal year 2012/13
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Subtitle: * Revenues and earnings disappointing in first half of 2012/13 owing
to delays with major projects
* Projects recently won will only be reflected in figures in second half-year
* Balance sheet figures reveal strong financial base after project completion in
Poland
* Reorientation of Kapsch TrafficCom Group for growth in ITS market completed
Company Information/6-month report
Wien (euro adhoc) - Press Release
05778400
2012/13 H1: 1 April - 30 September 2012 2012/13 H1 +/- % 2011/12 H1
Revenues (in EUR million) 203.4 -27% 278.8
EBIT (in EUR million) -6.2 - 40.1
Profit for the period (in EUR million) -7.0 - 22.4
Earnings per share (in EUR) -0.85 - 1.36
Vienna, 22 November 2012 - Kapsch TrafficCom AG (ISIN AT000KAPSCH9) listed on
the Prime Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange has reported on a complex first
half-year in 2012/13. Delays in implementing and rolling out large projects had
a negative impact on revenues and earnings, while the main balance sheet figures
since the first quarter again demonstrate the solid financial foundations
underpinning the activities of the Kapsch TrafficCom Group. Moreover, Kapsch
TrafficCom managed to win some significant new contracts in the reporting
period.
Revenues of the Kapsch TrafficCom Group came in at EUR 203.4 million, 27.1%
below the corresponding figure in the previous year of EUR 278.8 million. The
previous year was marked by outstanding revenues following the implementation of
major projects, but the implementation projects recently won have yet to be
reflected in the figures for the reporting period. The projects in South Africa
and Poland have not yet generated the expected levels of operation revenue,
while the sale of on-board units only registered the expected growth in the
second quarter.
The lower revenues made it more difficult to cover costs completely. Coming in
at EUR -6.2 million, EBIT was negative in the first half of 2012/13 following
EUR 40.1 million in the same period in the previous year, though a substantial
improvement was achieved from the first to the second quarter based on the
higher volume of sold on-board units and the greater contribution made by the
operation project in Poland.
The nationwide electronic toll collection system in Poland has been in operation
for more than a year, and extensions have already been ordered. However, the
revenues for Kapsch TrafficCom have fallen short of expectations. In South
Africa the launch of the electronic toll collection system for multi-lane
free-flow traffic in the province of Gauteng was delayed shortly before its
roll-out at the end of April due to a legal action filed against the road
operator; consequently there is no operation revenue to offset costs for the
time being. At the end of October a decision was made to continue the system
roll-out process, and Kapsch TrafficCom is optimistic about the latest
developments in this project.
Kapsch TrafficCom enjoyed some strategic successes in the second quarter on the
U.S. market: at the end of July and for the first time in this region the
company was chosen to supply an entire system in Texas, comprising a toll
collection system, an intelligent transportation system and a network
communications system. Just one month later, Kapsch TrafficCom was awarded
another contract, this time for an incident detection system in a tunnel in
Houston.
In Brazil - one of the fastest growing markets in the ITS industry - Kapsch
TrafficCom won its first contract for the delivery of on-board units. And at the
end of August the company won another contract for a toll collection system in
Sydney, Australia.
The contracts won in recent months have demonstrated the growing convergence of
the market for intelligent transportation systems (ITS). The Executive Board
sees this as confirmation of the recently adopted strategy and the new corporate
structure implemented from early October. This enables greater importance to be
attached to select ITS applications, over and above toll collection. The Kapsch
TrafficCom Group now has a globally uniform organizational structure with
coordinated standards, processes and interfaces. This will underpin the
continuation of growth.
Revenues and earnings
Both of the implementation projects in the segment Road Solution Projects (RSP)
in Poland and South Africa were associated with high revenues in the first six
months of the previous fiscal year. The newly launched projects were unable to
compensate for this in the reporting period, and so revenues posted a decline of
59.2% from EUR 122.9 million to EUR 50.2 million. This was insufficient to
provide full coverage for costs, and therefore EBIT in the segment RSP came in
at EUR -15.7 million.
In the segment Services, System Extensions, Components Sales (SEC), revenues
dropped by 5.6% from EUR 153.2 million in the previous year to EUR 144.7
million. The operation project in Poland made a significant contribution to
revenues. However, the suspension of the project launch in South Africa and the
- now completed - contract negotiations with individual agencies of the E-ZPass
Group meant that the volume of sold on-board units fell short of expectations in
the reporting period. The number of sold units in the first six months of fiscal
2012/13 was 4.0 million, compared to 5.7 million in the previous year. The
competitive pricing for this contract, which has now resulted in common global
margins in the U.S.A. as well, also had an impact on earnings. The decline in
EBIT from EUR 32.4 million in the previous year to EUR 9.1 million mainly
reflects the reduced sales of on-board units and the low or even absent
contributions from the projects in Poland and in South Africa.
Financial position and cash flows
The main balance sheet figures were significantly improved in the first half of
the 2012/13 fiscal year by the completion of the implementation project in
Poland and the associated payment. Total assets fell from EUR 557.7 million to
EUR 481.5 million compared to the reporting date of 31 March 2012. This was
caused by the reduction of trade receivables under assets, while on the equity
and liabilities side of the balance sheet, mainly through the decline in current
financial liabilities. Equity capital dropped to almost the same extent, thus
bumping the equity capital ratio up marginally from 45.9% to 46.2%.
These developments triggered an increase in the free cash flow compared to the
first half-year of fiscal 2011/12, from EUR -44.9 million to EUR 78.7 million.
At EUR 16.3 million, net debt remains at a very low level, while net current
assets and capital employed were lowered substantially. Cash and cash
equivalents at the end of the half-year amounted to EUR 67.7 million. These
significant changes demonstrate that Kapsch TrafficCom has a solid balance sheet
structure - also in view of future projects.
Outlook
The current order book and the successes achieved will also be reflected in the
earnings of the Kapsch TrafficCom Group in the second half of 2012/13. The major
project in Belarus was launched in September as planned. In addition to this,
the coming months will be marked by further developments in South Africa and by
participation in tenders. Kapsch TrafficCom is currently working on a bid for a
toll collection system tender in Hungary.
The report on the first half of fiscal 2012/13 can be downloaded from
{http://www.kapsch.net/ktc/investor_relations/reports/download/Quarterly-reports/2012-13/KTC_IR_Report_FY13-H1?lang=en-US}[HYPERLINK:
http://www.kapsch.net/ktc/investor_relations/reports/download/Quarterly-reports/2012-13/KTC_IR_Report_FY13-H1?lang=en-US].
Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in
the application fields of toll collection, urban access management and traffic
safety and security. Kapsch TrafficCom covers the entire value creation chain of
its customers as a one-stop shop by providing products and components as well as
subsystems as open market products, by integrating them into turnkey systems or
by developing end-to-end solutions, including the technical and commercial
operations of systems. Within its current core business of electronic toll
collection (ETC), Kapsch TrafficCom designs, builds and operates ETC systems, in
particular for multi-lane free-flow traffic. With 280 references in 41 countries
on all continents and with almost 70 million on-board units delivered and about
18,000 lanes equipped, Kapsch TrafficCom has positioned itself among the
internationally recognized suppliers of ETC systems worldwide. Kapsch TrafficCom
is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries and representative
offices in 30 countries. For additional information, please visit
{www.kapschtraffic.com}[HYPERLINK: http://www.kapschtraffic.com].
Follow us on Twitter: {twitter.com/kapschnet}[HYPERLINK:
http://twitter.com/kapschnet].
Further inquiry note:
Mag. Marcus Handl
Investor Relations Officer
Kapsch TrafficCom AG
Am Europlatz 2
1120 Wien, Österreich
Tel.: +43 50.811 1120
E-Mail: {ir.kapschtraffic@kapsch.net}
[HYPERLINK: mailto:ir.kapschtraffic@kapsch.net]
Pressekontakt:
Mag. Katharina Riedl
Unternehmenssprecherin
Kapsch AG
Am Europlatz 2
1120 Wien, Österreich
Tel. +43 50.811 1705
E-Mail: {katharina.riedl@kapsch.net}
[HYPERLINK: mailto:katharina.riedl@kapsch.net]
end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: Kapsch TrafficCom AG
Am Europlatz 2
A-1121 Wien
phone: +43 1 50811 1122
FAX: +43 1 50811 99 1122
mail: ir.kapschtraffic@kapsch.net
WWW: www.kapschtraffic.com
sector: Technology
ISIN: AT000KAPSCH9
indexes: Prime Market
stockmarkets: official market: Wien
language: English