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Koenig & Bauer AG (DUS:SKB) Koenig & Bauer AG / Quarterly report / Ad hoc: Koenig & Bauer AG: Nine-month profit but market, sales and earnings demand consolidation Ad hoc announcement according to §15 WpHG processed and transmitted by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------
Like the rest of the sector, printing press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) is experiencing the knock-on effects of the current financial turmoil on its export business. Following a slump in demand in key markets such as the USA, and the abrupt tightening of credit lines for customer investments, group order intake in the first nine months fell 12.5% to EUR1,005m (2007: EUR1,148.2m). Group sales, at EUR1,075.3m, were 11% below the prior-year figure of EUR1,208.6m. But despite narrower contribution margins, higher material and energy prices, the substantial expense associated with intermittent below-capacity plant utilisation and allowances for bad debts, KBA posted a modest operating profit of EUR7.9m (2007: EUR41.5m). A financial loss of EUR4.3m was accompanied by a plunge in earnings before taxes (EBT) from EUR38m to EUR3.6m. KBA closed the period with a net profit of EUR7.8m (2007: EUR29.8m) and proportional earnings per share of 47 cents (2007: EUR1.83).
A drop in the order backlog from EUR888.3m to EUR721.6m resulted in below-capacity production output at sheetfed and web press production plants, and this continued in the fourth quarter. As a countermeasure, overtime and holiday accounts are being run down and KBA's Radebeul plant has submitted an application to introduce short-time work from November onwards.
Reaffirming the revised sales and profit forecast issued in late September for the current financial year (ending 31 December), KBA now anticipates sales of EUR1.5bn (down from EUR1.7bn in 2007) and a group pre-tax loss in the high double-digit millions due to a high one-off expense for consolidating sheetfed production plants, though the pre-restructuring operating loss is unlikely to exceed EUR10m. With global demand exceptionally weak, and little likelihood of improvement in the foreseeable future, management sees an urgent need to reduce sheetfed capacity, having barely completed the capacity adjustment initiated at its web press plants in September 2007. Around 600 of the 3,600 jobs at the sheetfed factories in Radebeul near Dresden (Germany), Mödling (Austria) and Dobruska (Czech Republic) will have to go. Details are still being negotiated with workers' representatives.
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Koenig & Bauer AG Friedrich-Koenig-Straße 4 Würzburg Germany
WKN: 719350; ISIN: DE0007193500; Index: SDAX; Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, Geregelter Markt in Bayerische Börse München, Freiverkehr in Börse Stuttgart, Freiverkehr in Hanseatische Wertpapierbörse zu Hamburg, Freiverkehr in Börse Berlin, Prime Standard in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, Freiverkehr in Börse Düsseldorf;
