Corporate | 18 February 2005 02:34
plenum AG: Preliminary Consolidated Financial Statements, 2004:
Ad hoc announcement §15 WpHG
Preliminary Financial Statements
plenum AG: Preliminary Consolidated Financial Statements, 2004:
Ad hoc announcement transmitted by DGAP.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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plenum AG: Preliminary Consolidated Financial Statements, 2004
Wiesbaden, February 18, 2005
According to preliminary figures, plenum AG slightly increased its revenues by
2% in financial year 2004 to Euro 41.0 million (previous year: Euro 40.3
million). Development of revenues in the three divisions remained stable,
to a great extent, compared to the previous year. However, the value creation
(percentage of own business of turnover) dropped by approximately Euro
2 million.
At 42% share of turnover, business development was decisively affected by the
Phoenics project. The negotiation results at the end of this project, which
has been running for three years and which, at Euro 40 million, is the largest
project in the history of the plenum company, led to an additional burden on
profit. Related to delays in project assignments in December, a total loss of
Euro 1.5 million had to be borne in this quarter.
For that reason, against expectations, it was not possible to achieve a
positive annual result. According to the preliminary figures, a consolidated
loss of Euro -1.7 million (previous year: Euro +0.2 million) will be reported.
However, at the same time, it was possible to book incoming orders for
maintenance and further development of the Phoenics software amounting to a
total of approximately Euro 5 million.
The expertise in industrial software production that has been built up in the
Phoenics project was enhanced in spring 2004 by the strategic partnership with
Polaris (5000 software developers in six software factories in India). Since
many companies have not yet created the organisational prerequisites for
successful cooperation with an Indian software factory, hardly any large
offshore projects are being awarded at present. Currently, plenum is
supporting many companies to orientate itself around this new form of software
production.
In financial year 2005, plenum AG will concentrate its range of services even
more intensely on services that require intensive consulting as well as on the
management and design of the technical and organisational implementation in
order to withdraw from the ongoing price war for pure programming. Closer
organisational and personnel interlocking of the systems and consulting lines
of business that is related to this positioning was already initiated at the
end of 2004 and will be completely implemented during the course of the
financial year. The positive turnover trend of the Consulting division
confirms this strategic positioning. The sales revenues in the first three
months of the current financial year are expected to increase by 10%.
As a result of this focus, the Executive Board of plenum AG expects a clear
increase of the value creation in 2005. They intentionally decided against a
pure implementation business with a high percentage of external services to
the detriment of the turnover development in order to extensively avoid the
ongoing price pressure in this context. Therefore, from today’s perspective, a
considerable drop in turnover with an increase in value creation is expected
in 2005 on the whole.
Since the special effects from a major project of the dimensions of Phoenics
are not to be expected in 2005, the earning power of the company from
operational business will increase considerably.
The continuing solid base of liquid assets makes it still possible to finance
the company’s development independently. The reserves of liquid assets at the
end of the past financial year were at Euro 6.6 million (previous year: Euro
8.1 million). At the end of January, the liquid assets increased according to
expectations to approximately Euro 8 million.
More detailed information about the preliminary annual financial statement for
2004 can be found in the press release that was released today. The complete
2004 annual report can be found at www.plenum.de as of 07.04.2005.
Additional information
Hubert Sand
Manager of Corporate Communication
plenum AG
Tel.: + 49 (0) 611 – 98 82 – 0
Fax: + 49 (0) 611 – 98 82 – 1 50
email: aktie@plenum.de
plenum AG
Hagenauer Str. 53
65203 Wiesbaden
Deutschland
ISIN: DE0006901002
WKN: 690100
Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard) und Stuttgart;
Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover und München
End of ad hoc announcement (c)DGAP 18.02.2005
Issuer’s information/explanatory remarks concerning this ad hoc announcement:
Information and Explanations for this ad hoc Report by the Issuers
This report contains future-orientated statements that are based on current
expectations, estimates, predictions, and forecasts as well as on the
assessments and assumptions of the management of plenum AG. Such statements
include statements about plans, strategies, and outlooks. Words such as
“expect”, “most likely”, “preliminary” and similar expressions identify such
future-orientated statements. These statements are not guarantees of future
results and contain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are in part
very difficult to foresee. Therefore, the actual consequences and results
could deviate considerably from what has been stated in the future-orientated
statements.
End of message (c)DGAP
180204 Feb 05