Neckarsulm, 12 August 2010 - In the second quarter of 2010, Bechtle AG recorded further substantial increases in revenue and earnings. Revenues increased by 16.2 per cent to 375.0 million euros (prior year: 322.6 million euros). The IT system house & managed services segment reported a revenue growth of 12.8 per cent, and the IT e-commerce segment contributed to this positive development with 23.1 per cent. EBT climbed by 61.2 per cent to 11.0 million euros (prior year: 6.8 million euros). The EBT margin thus amounted to 2.9 per cent, compared to 2.1 per cent in the prior-year quarter. Earnings after taxes skyrocketed by 72.6 per cent, amounting to 8.3 million euros in the second quarter (prior year: 4.8 million euros). The earnings per share amounted to 0.40 euros, compared to 0.23 euros in the prior year.
"We are very happy with our business performance. Thanks to the significant economic recovery and the continually high willingness to invest on the part of businesses and public-sector clients, we continued to grow encouragingly in the second quarter. We gained market shares and further increased the dynamics of the extremely strong first quarter to a significant extent," says Dr. Thomas Olemotz, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bechtle AG.
IT system house & managed services segment eclipses prior year.
The revenue in the IT system house & managed services segment increased by 12.8 per cent to 243.7 million euros (prior year: 216.0 million euros). The growth was exclusively organic. In the second quarter of 2010, the EBIT in this segment increased by 53.5 per cent to 5.8 million euros (prior year: 3.8 million euros). The EBIT margin was 2.4 per cent, compared to 1.8 per cent in the prior year. Both the domestic system houses and the system houses in Switzerland contributed to this positive development.
IT e-commerce exhibits particularly strong growth.
The trading segment grew at a disproportionately high rate of 23.1 per cent from 106.6 million euros to 131.3 million euros. The economic upturn is still much stronger in this segment than in the system house segment. The earnings underwent an even more distinct improvement. The EBIT in the IT e-commerce segment climbed by 75.4 per cent from 2.7 million euros to 4.8 million euros. The EBIT margin was 3.7 per cent, compared to 2.6 per cent in the prior-year quarter. This favourable development was made possible by the strong revenue growth and a slightly increased gross margin.
Continually sound assets and financial position.
As of 30 June 2010, the equity climbed to 341.6 million euros, compared to 335.0 million euros as of 31 December 2009. Due to the balance extension, the equity ratio dropped slightly from 64.3 per cent to 64.2 per cent. Cash and cash equivalents including time deposits and securities amounted to 85.2 million euros as of the end of the reporting period (31 December 2009: 95.0 million euros). The decrease in cash and cash equivalents was mainly caused by the increase in working capital by 13.2 million euros and the dividend payment of 12.6 million euros. In the six-month period, the cash flow from operating activities dropped by 11.8 million euros to 7.6 million euros (prior year: 19.4 million euros). This was due to the high business performance, which resulted in a disproportionately high build-up of inventories and trade receivables for reasons related to the reporting date.
Executive board embarks on second half of the year with optimism.
The Executive Board expects the economic recovery to continue, albeit less dynamically in the remaining part of the year. Provided that the economic framework conditions remain stable, the management still expects a revenue increase in both segments, along with a significant improvement in earnings in the financial year 2010.