Tuesday, 21. October 2008 Ad hoc: R. STAHL announces key data on the first nine months of 2008
Sales and earnings are up - Guidance for the year confirmed thanks to stable business environment
Waldenburg, 21 October 2008 - The explosion protection specialist, R. STAHL Group, registered a 9.6% sales increase to EUR 168.3 million (previous year: EUR 153.5 million) in the period from January to September 2008.
At EUR 166.4 million, order intake in the first three quarters remained about unchanged year-on-year (previous year: EUR 166.6 million).
According to preliminary calculations, R. STAHL's pre-tax earnings (EBT) rose to EUR 18.1 million after EUR 17.8 million including EUR 1.5 million in non-recurrent profits from the IT divestment the year before. Adjusted for the non-recurrent-profit effect, EBT increased 11.0% year-on-year. The pre-tax return on sales reached 10.8% after 10.6% in the comparable period last year.
Although the German Engineering Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, VDMA) expects major plant construction business to slow down, it still sees further growth for 2009, albeit at a lower level. R. STAHL's management agrees with that assessment confirming its guidance for fiscal 2008 as a whole despite recently weaker business activity. The 2008 guidance thus remains at consolidated sales of EUR 220 to 230 million after EUR 211.6 million in 2007. Pre-tax earnings are to reach 10% of sales revenue and earnings per share are to rise again. However, this guidance presupposes that the global financial crisis will not escalate and that the economy in general will not deteriorate further.
R. STAHL will publish its detailed report on the first nine months of this year on 11 November 2008.
Contact:
R. STAHL AG
Communication / Investor Relations
Judith Schäuble
Am Bahnhof 30, D-74638 Waldenburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (7942) 943-1217, Fax: +49 (7942) 943-1364