Heidelberg: "FOCUS 2012" Program to Achieve Profitability Targets

Preliminary results for the third quarter

As expected, the economic uncertainties have made the industry more reluctant to invest and resulted in weaker demand. The interim insolvency of a competitor is exacerbating this situation.

Based on preliminary calculations, incoming orders in the third quarter of financial year 2011/12 (October 1 to December 31, 2011) totaled around EUR 640 million and sales around EUR 630 million, which is in line with the scaled-down expectations. Preliminary incoming orders at Heidelberg are down on the previous quarter's figure of EUR 668 million, while preliminary sales match the figure for the previous quarter (EUR 636 million). The third quarter's preliminary operating result (EBIT) excluding special items is just in the black again at around EUR 2 million (previous quarter: EUR 5 million). After nine months, despite sales falling slightly compared to the previous year, Heidelberg has succeeded in improving the operating result excluding special items to EUR -19 million (previous year: EUR -26 million). As a result, the company is still planning to achieve a noticeably better operating result excluding special items for financial year 2011/12 as a whole than in the previous year. The preliminary free cash flow in the third quarter almost broke even at EUR -4 million (previous quarter: EUR -12 million). This kept the net debt at a relatively low level and, at December 31, 2011, it was virtually unchanged from the previous quarter at around EUR 275 million.