Preliminary sales by the Heidelberg Group during the period under review grew 12 percent to 3.586 billion Euro (previous year: 3.207 billion Euro). At 1.149 billion Euro, sales in the fourth quarter alone were roughly 18 percent up on the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Preliminary incoming orders in the financial year just closed were 3.605 billion Euro and were therefore around three percent higher than last year’s already high figure. Preliminary incoming orders in the fourth quarter rose significantly to 880 million Euro compared to the previous year (780 million Euro). At around one billion Euro, the preliminary order backlog at March 31, 2006 was on a par with the previous year’s very high figures.
In a nutshell, the company says sales up 12 percent to 3.586 billion Euro, incoming orders of 3.605 billion Euro exceed previous year’s level, operating result is 277 million Euro, or 7.7 percent of sales, net profit more than doubled to 135 million Euro and free cash flow of 143 million Euro well above expectations.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG’s CEO, Bernhard Schreier, says the worldwide economic boom has stabilised over the past year but has benefited the company in the meantime and it still looks like this positive trend in the print media industry is set to continue throughout the current financial year.
Heidelberg’s CFO, Dr. Herbert Meyer, however, says that economic risks such as exchange rate movements and raw material and energy prices are still very much a factor.
