Corporate | 18 November 2004 08:06

SHS on the fast lane:

Corporate-news announcement sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– SHS on the fast lane: Significant earnings growth in Q3/2004 -Third-quarter EBITDA on par with full-year EBIDTA of 2003 -Financing on solid footing through 2014 Munich, November 18, 2004 – SHS Informationssysteme AG, Munich, the IT solutions provider, today announced significant growth rates for the third quarter of fiscal year 2004: SHS AG increased its output to EUR 9.2 million, up 26% from the same period of last year (EUR 7.3 million). The EBITDA increased by a whopping 75% to EUR 0.7 million (Q3/2003: EUR 0.4 million). This means that it took SHS only the third quarter of 2004 to equal its full-year operating earnings of 2003. Looking at the first nine months of 2004: The output was EUR 22.5 million (Q1-Q3/2003: EUR 22.4 million). It has to be noted that the previous year’s figure includes sales of EUR 2.1 million that were generated by the French subsidiary, which was sold and deconsolidated in 2004. SHS was able to up its EBITDA to EUR 2.7 million (Q1-Q3/2003: EUR 0.7 million). However, this also includes extraordinary items from the sale of the French subsidiary and from the debt reduction measures carried out by SHS. The latter are also the primary reason for the clearly positive financial result of EUR 1.8 million as of September 30, 2004 (Q1-Q3/2003: loss of EUR 1.4 million). Dirk Roesing, chief executive officer of SHS AG, comments: “We announced that we would take our performance to the next level in this year. We kept our promise!” SHS also continued its strict cost management policy: Other operating expenses in the first nine months decreased by 8%, personnel expenses by 12%. Recently, the management of SHS also converted the remaining liabilities of EUR 9.2 million from the acquisition of its Spanish subsidiary SHS Polar into a long-term loan. This measure ensures solid financing of these liabilities through 2014. The project business and product sales performed very strongly in the past three quarters. For seasonal reasons, the fourth quarter always is a special challenge. But this does not prevent SHS from looking to the future with optimism. “Motivated by our nine-month performance, we will continue to work on the successful development of the SHS Group in the fourth quarter,” says Roesing. “We have set ourselves ambitious goals for the future. Our efforts will focus on steadily expanding our market share in Germany and Spain.” Munich-based SHS Informationssysteme AG is listed on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and operates a subsidiary in Spain. The IT services provider focuses on offering customer management and credit risk management solutions to companies with a broad customer base. In 2003, the company recorded revenues of EUR 29.8 million. The customers of SHS AG include the Telekom Group, the Telefónica Group, BMW, Norisbank, Südleasing, Barclaycard and other international companies in the information and financial sectors. For more information, see http://www.shs.de . Further Information: SHS Informationssysteme AG Wolfgang Brand Tel: +49 – 89 – 747257- 0 e-mail: wolfgang.brand@shs.de HOSCHKE & CONSORTEN Grit Muschelknautz Tel: +49 – 40 – 369050-41 e-mail: g.muschelknautz@hoschke.de end of message, (c)DGAP 18.11.2004 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 507240; ISIN: DE0005072409; Index: Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 180806 Nov 04