Ad-hoc | 19 June 2007 11:15
KOENIG & BAUER AG / AGM/EGM
Release of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG, transmitted by
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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At the 82nd AGM of German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA), group
president and CEO Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann reaffirmed his March
projections for 2007 of group sales totalling €1.7bn and a pre-tax profit
on a similar scale to last year’s €47.4m. Although investment in big
newspaper and gravure press lines has been slow for the past year, buoyant
demand for sheetfed and special presses meant that the volume of orders for
the first five months of 2007 was a good €70m up on the prior-year figure.
Sales were also higher, and KBA projects a rise in sales and a profit in
the first half-year, figures for which will be published on 14 August.
While KBA’s sheetfed division has enough orders to keep it busy until well
into the fourth quarter, a year-on-year drop in the order backlog for
newspaper and gravure presses, due in part to higher shipments, will cause
capacity fluctuations in the second half-year at the group’s web press
production plants. Because of the long lead times for web presses, recent
contracts for newspaper and commercial presses will have no immediate
impact on manufacturing and assembly levels.
Having reduced the volume of work outsourced, downsized the temporary
labour force and rescheduled internal manufacturing jobs, KBA is planning
to introduce short-time work in certain departments from 1 July. The costs
associated with this cut in capacity utilisation have already been factored
into the earnings forecast for 2007.
Says Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann: 'Among newspaper publishers, investment in
new kit has been hit by demographic trends in many developed economies and
by the fact that daily titles in Europe and North America have now largely
completed conversion to full colour. It is too soon to tell whether this is
cyclic, like the downturn six years ago, a temporary phenomenon as the
media industry absorbs ongoing changes in the market, or a permanent and
irreversible trend. If the last hypothesis is correct we shall be obliged
to trim our web press operations and focus on core components.' He was
unwilling to be more specific.
DGAP 19.06.2007
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Language: English
Issuer: KOENIG & BAUER AG
Friedrich-Koenig Straße 4
97080 Würzburg Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)931 909-4835
Fax: +49 (0)931 909-6015
E-mail: bernd.heusinger@kba-print.de
www: www.kba-print.de
ISIN: DE0007193500
WKN: 719350
Indices: SDAX
Listed: Amtlicher Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), München;
Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
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