Consumables

Dr. Hönle AG: Hönle Increases Nine-Month Results to Eur 6.4 million

Tuesday 26. August 2014 - Sales revenues earned by the Hönle Group in the first nine months of financial year 2013/2014 increased by 10.6 % to TEur 61,390. The operating result (EBIT) climbed by 19.5 % to TEur 6,368 in the same period. Pre-tax results grew 26.7 % to TEur 6,044 and consolidated earnings by 29.0 % to TEur 4,539, which translates into earnings per share of Eur 0.80 (PY: Eur 0.61).

This development also led to a year-on-year improvement in the earnings ratio: Despite a clearly negative earnings contribution on the part of Raesch Quarz (Germany) GmbH, the Hönle Group succeeded in increasing the EBIT margin from 9.4 % to 10.3 % and net profit margin from 6.3 % to 7.4 %.
Equity capital amounted to TEur 48,586 as of 30 June 2014, which corresponds to an equity ratio of 59.9 %.
Outlook
The Hönle Group is excellently positioned in growth segments such as digital printing, the automotive industry, smartphones and smartcards. Future growth is expected for these fields of business, in particular. Moreover, the corporate group has created sound preconditions to further tap into the growing semiconductor and glass fiber markets with quartz products. The Offset printing segment is assumed to provide for stable sales development.
The future business development of Raesch Quarz (Germany) GmbH, in particular, is of major importance for improving the earnings power of the Hönle Group.
Technical problems in the current year led to high materials expenditure and, in addition, were an obstacle to realizing the planned sales revenues. As a consequence, the melting furnaces will be optimized in terms of both construction and control technology by the end of the calendar year. Initial results respecting furnaces already remodelled indicate that these measures will result in a significant lower amount of rejects. In addition, energy costs are expected to fall significantly below the level achieved to date. Management expects that the measures taken together with the strong expansion of distribution capacities will contribute positively to earnings in the first quarter of the new financial year.
In all, Management assumes that the Hönle Group will reach the sales target of between Eur 80 and Eur 85 million and an earnings target (EBIT) of between Eur 9 and 10 million in financial year 2013/2014. Management’s expectations respecting financial year 2014/2015 are for further sales and earnings increases given constant overall economic conditions.