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DJ EANS-Adhoc: Mühlbauer Holding AG & Co.KGaA / Strong core business achieves new record high in order income – earnings impacted by special influences – high order backlog generates positive basis for current financial year

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  ad-hoc disclosure pursuant to section 15 of the WpHG transmitted by euro
  adhoc with the aim of a Europe-wide distribution. The issuer is solely
  responsible for the content of this announcement.
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27.04.2009 

Roding, 28 April 2009 - Irrespective of the further aggravation of the worldwide
financial and economic crisis, the Mühlbauer technology group recorded a
positive start to the 2009 financial year. While earnings before interest and
taxes (EBIT) was significantly lower year-on-year, largely due to the higher
depreciation of inventories and further allocations to provisions for legal
fees, the new record high in order income achieved in the company´s core
business area Cards & TECURITY® confirms the excellent positioning and sustained
attractiveness as a leading global system partner for the entire transfer of
technology and expertise for the production of electronic ID documents.
Furthermore, the order backlog to the end of the reporting period is a good
starting point for the current financial year. 

Consolidated sales of the Mühlbauer technology group recorded EUR 38.1 million
(PY: EUR 43.2 million) in Q1 2009, thus lagging the same quarter of the previous
year by 11.7%, despite the sales increase in its core business area Cards &
TECURITY®. Including the special charges from the depreciation of inventories
and the additions to accruals for legal fees, which impacted the result and were
effected in connection with patent infringement suits, earnings before interest
and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR 2.4 million (PY: EUR 7.1 million). This
corresponds to a reduction of the EBIT margin from 16.4% to 6.3%. The regrouping
of the securities portfolio to securities with lower risk and thus lower return,
effected in the course of the global financial crisis and the significant
decline in interest rates for demand deposits largely resulted in the fact that
the financial result dropped from EUR 0.5 million to EUR 0.1 million
year-on-year. This results in a pre-tax profit of EUR 2.4 million (PY: EUR 7.6
million) and, after deducting tax expenses, net earnings for the period of EUR
1.8 million - after EUR 5.7 million for the same period of the previous year.
Earnings per share consequently dropped to EUR 0.12 (PY: EUR 0.39). 

Due to the adjustment of the working capital management to the current
development, working capital declined by EUR 2.8 million to EUR 50.9 million in
the first quarter, while free cashflow was EUR -2.7 million lower year-on-year,
at EUR -0.4 million (PY: EUR +2.3 million) as a result of the scheduled payments
made during the reporting period in respect of the completion of the new
technology centers in the USA and Slovakia. The equity ratio dropped from 77.5%
to 76.5% and was only slightly below the previous year´s value. 

Irrespective of the difficult economic market environment the Mühlbauer
technology group succeeded due to a significant increase in orders in the
company´s core business area Cards & TECURITY® in fully compensating for the
decline in orders in the other business areas, caused primarily by the current
economic trend. At the same time, the high reference value of the previous year
(EUR 48.2 million) climbed 8.3% to EUR 52.2 million. 

While the investments in the core business area Cards & TECURITY® in respect of
the implementation of the strategic development goal from a technology supplier
to a system partner for the entire transfer of technology and expertise for the
production of electronic ID documents were acknowledged with a distinct increase
of order income of 36.7% to EUR 40.6 million (PY: EUR 29.7 million), the
remaining industry-related areas lagged behind year-on-year: Thus, order income
of Semiconductor Related Products was moderately lower year-on-year, at EUR 7.6
million (PY: EUR 7.9 million) irrespective of the noticeable rise in interest
for Smart Label production lines, while severe declines in order were recorded
in Traceability (EUR 0.8 million; PY: EUR 4.6 million) and Precision Parts &
Systems (EUR 3.2 million; PY: EUR 6.0 million). The order backlog recorded at
the end of Q1 2009 climbed to EUR 94.7 million (PY: EUR 76.9 million) and thus
underwent a significant increase of 23.1%. 

Mühlbauer's ambitious goal to achieve a stable development of sales and earnings
in the 2009 financial year, represents a growing challenge, in view of the
aggravation of the economic crisis. Due to the distinct cyclical decline of the
majority of the industrial business, it is to be expected that the ongoing
business development will be strongly characterized by the government-related
TECURITY® business. In this area, Mühlbauer is therefore focusing on qualifying
for further ID projects and on providing the complete technology and entire
expertise for the production of electronic ID documents as a worldwide leading
system partner without disregading previous efforts of intensifying the market
diversification in order to generate more business in the other areas. In so
doing, the company benefits, in particular, from the rising demand for
innovative security-oriented ID documents in Smart Card and passport formats and
the resultant high demand for system solutions. 

Contact and additional information: Investor Relations, Tilo Rosenberger, Tel.:
+49 (0) 9461-952-1653, Fax: +49 (0) 9461-952-8520,
investor-relations@muehlbauer.de, Mühlbauer Holding AG & Co. KGaA,
Josef-Mühlbauer-Platz 1, 93426 Roding, Germany, www.muehlbauer.de. 

end of announcement                               euro adhoc
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2009 02:02 ET (06:02 GMT)