Corporate | 23 August 2001 07:39

NorCom Info. Tech. AG english

Corporate-news announcement sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– Munich, August 23, 2001 — NorCom Information Technology AG today confirmed the preliminary first-half figures released on August 13. Thus, the NorCom Group posted total revenues of EUR 17.9 million in the first six months of this year. Total revenues in the year-ago period came to EUR 15.2 million on a pro forma basis. Consulting and project business grew sharply, delivering revenues of EUR 14.4 million, up 51% on the same period one year earlier. Mounting uncertainty surrounding the outlook for the economy predominantly left traces on product and product-related service business. Product revenues in the first half came to EUR 1.9 million, down EUR 3.1 million on the year-ago period. Foreign business accounted for 43.6% of revenues in the second quarter, up from 21% in the first three months of the year. Consolidated loss after tax and minority interests in the first half of the year stood at EUR 3.4 million, compared with the profit of EUR 0.1 million one year earlier. Reduced product business, high advance outlays on ASP projects by the Company’s Norwegian subsidiary NSA and still expensive cost structures at the end of the period exerted pressure on earnings in the first half. The NorCom Group has ample liquid funds of EUR 16.4 million. At the end of the second quarter, the NorCom Group employed 303 people. The personnel structure, which in the first half was still aligned to greater growth, caused costs of approx. EUR 11.9 million, accounting for roughly half of total costs. In addition to drastic cuts in the cost of materials, management is focusing on achieving a viable revenues-per-employee ratio to put the Group back on course to profitability. The NorCom Group expects earnings to improve in the second half of the year. Leaner organizational structures, substantial cost-cutting as well as business- process optimization will form the basis for the Group’s return to profitability. end of message, (c)DGAP 23.08.2001