Ad-hoc | 15 May 2007 08:33
plenum AG / Quarter Results
Release of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG, transmitted by
DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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plenum AG: plenum expands its core business and consultancy capacity
- 36% growth in the core business of Management Consulting versus the
previous year
- 30% expansion in consultancy capacity in the core business since Q4
2006
- Consultancy expansion affects EBIT in Q1 2007 as expected
- Company confirms 2007 prognosis of EUR 26.5 million revenues and EBIT
of EUR 0.5 million
Wiesbaden, 15 May 2007 - plenum AG (Prime Standard, ISIN DE 0006901002), a
management consulting firm focusing in particular on solutions for
strategic task completion for banks, insurance and utility companies,
announces its financial figures for the first quarter 2007.
plenum AG generates revenues of EUR 5.5 million in Q1 2007 (Q1 2006: EUR
6.2 million). The revenues decline of EUR 0.7 million is largely due to the
scheduled withdrawal from the implementation business (software
development), which has been completed in the meantime and contributed to
revenues in the amount of EUR 1.2 million in Q1 2006. plenum's
Communications segment reports a slight decrease in gross revenues to EUR
2.4 million (Q1 2006: EUR 2.7 million), which is mostly due to a decline in
media revenues with weak margins and hardly affects the earnings.
The pleasing revenue development of plenum's core business compensates a
major portion of the drop in revenues and has thus confirmed the refocusing
strategy concluded in 2006 for the company's consequent realignment towards
business with strong margins in the Management Consulting segment.
Consequently, the Management Consulting segment grew by 36% to EUR 3.4
million (prior period: EUR 2.5 million) and almost attained 60% of total
gross revenues.
As a result of focusing on the Consulting business, the Group's gross
profit climbs by about 88% to a total of EUR 1.5 million (Q1 2006: EUR 0.8
million) compared with the comparative quarter of previous year. The gross
margin of 26.4% of revenues (Q1 2006: 13.4%) almost doubles and rises once
again versus Q4 2006 (21%).
Following the initial success of the consequent refocusing towards
Management Consulting concluded in 2006, plenum will implement a firm
growth strategy during the course of 2007. The main focal points of the
growth strategy include:
1. organic expansion of consultancy capacities in the German core market
2. rounding off of the consulting spectrum via planned acquisition of
consulting firms
3. gradual internationalization of the company in line with the client's
requirements
For purposes of implementing the growth strategy, plenum strongly boosted
the recruiting of highly-qualified consultants at the end of 2006. Hence,
the consultancy capacity has risen by 30% since Q4 2006 to today. As
planned, the EBIT of minus EUR 0.3 million (Q1 2006: minus EUR 0.3 million)
still lies at the prior year's level.
This newly established consultancy capacity creates the potential of not
only maintaining the gross margin at a 25% level in the second half of
2007, but also to positively affect the EBIT. Consequently, the company
has significantly strengthened its sales efforts for the first half of
2007. The fruit of these efforts is demonstrated by the rise in the order
backlog of Management Consulting over the past three months of about 84% to
EUR 3.4 million as of March 31, 2007 (12/31/2006: EUR 1.8 million).
Based on this background, the management board confirms the outlook and
anticipates further growth in 2007 of about 20% in the Management
Consulting and Communications segments; this will fully compensate the
absence of revenues from the software-implementation business, which
represented EUR 4.4 million in 2006.
Hence, revenues are expected to amount to EUR 26.5 million. The EBIT is
anticipated to rise by about EUR 1.4 million over the prior period to EUR
0.5 million. Starting in 2008, average growth of 10% is expected and a
gradual rise in the EBIT margin to 12% over the following years.
The company's interim financial report for the first quarter ended March
31, 2007 will be published on May 23, 2007.
For further information or inquiries, please contact:
plenum AG
Investor Relations
Hagenauer Str. 53
65203 Wiesbaden
Tel.: +49 (0)611-9882-0
Fax: +49 (0)611-9882-496
Email: aktie@plenum.de
Internet: www.plenum.de
Investor Relations
FINREL GmbH – Financial Relations -
Stefan Bülling
Barnerstr. 14
22765 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 (0)40-39834-641
Fax: +49 (0)40-39834-649
Email: info@finrel.de
Internet: www.finrel.de
Information and comments from the issuer of this report:
This report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties due to current expectations, estimates, predictions and
forecasts as well as the use of estimates by the management of plenum AG.
Such forward-looking comments comprise the predictions of budgets,
strategies and outlooks. Forward-looking statements can also be identified
by words such as
DGAP 15.05.2007
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Language: English
Issuer: plenum AG
Hagenauer Straße 53
65203 Wiesbaden Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)611 9882-361
Fax: +49 (0)611 9882-496
E-mail: aktie@plenum.de
www: www.plenum.de
ISIN: DE0006901002
WKN: 690100
Indices:
Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Stuttgart;
Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf
End of News DGAP News-Service
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