The Board of Directors of Biesse S.p.A. has approved the Consolidated Interim Report for the six-month period to 30 June, 2015.
Compared to the same period last year, the company has seen a strong increase in consolidated revenues and operating profit. Net profit has more than doubled, while debt has declined despite dividends paid (Euro 9.8 million paid in May 2015).
The income statement shows consolidated revenues of € 245.5 million, up 22.1% compared to the same period of 2014. Value added of € 101.9 million, with a margin on revenues of 41.5%. EBITDA of € 28.9 million is up 70.7%, with a margin on revenues of 11.8%.
EBIT of € 20.2 million is up 108.1%, with a margin on revenues of 8.2%, while pre-tax profit of € 18.4 million has a margin on revenues of 7.5%. The company’s net profit of € 10.5 million shows an increase of 166.7% compared to the same time last year, with a margin on revenues of 4.3%.
At 30 June 2015, the Group net debt was € 19 million, an increase compared to the figureat December 2014 and at March 2015 that mainly reflects the dividend distribution to Biesse shareholders (May 2015 – payment of Euro 9.8 million):
• + Euro 6.3 million compared to 31 March 2015
• + Euro 7.7 million compared to 31 December 2014
• – Euro 9.6 million compared to 30 June 2014
• – Euro 32.3 million compared to 30 June 2013
The gearing ratio fell to 0.14x (0.25x in June 2014) with net debt consisting of some residual committed loans that originally had maturities of over 18 months. The debt/EBITDA ratio was 1.14x (1.71x in June 2014) while ROE was 0.08x (0.04x in June 2014). Consolidated net equity was Euro 132.0 million and consolidated net invested capital was Euro 151.0 million. The operative net working capital was Euro 8.4 million higher than at June 2014, but was Euro 1.4 million lower than at March 2015. At 30 June 2015, operative net working capital
represented 27.2% (6 months basis) of consolidated revenues.
The improvement in trade receivables/payables was largely due to the focus on financial flows and to the increased reliability of Biesse products. The consolidated orders intake in the first six months of the current financial year remained solid and sustained despite various political and economic uncertainties and the consequent increase in volatility.
At 30 June 2015, the orders intake showed a year-on-year increase of almost 13% and although it’s quite difficult to certify, there is concrete evidence that the overall world market shares of all the Biesse business divisions have grown.
The revenues and orders intake outperformed the average results of the three main reference trade associations. The outlook for investments in durable goods remains positive but shows different characteristics with more positive forecasts for the immediate future for UCIMU and ACIMALL (Italy) than for VDMA (Germany). The Group manufacturing backlog at 30 June 2015 was Euro 139.6 million, an increase of
29.5% over the same period of the preceding financial year. The order breakdown by business segment indicates that as usual the best performance came from the wood division (72.7%) compared to both the Glass/Stone segment (14.9%) and the Mechatronics segment (15.8%).
The geographic breakdown of consolidated revenues shows that the share generated by Western Europe grew (+27.2%) compared to the same period of the last financial year (41.7% of the consolidated revenues) and that within this figure, the domestic component
was 14% (10.3% at June 2014 and 10.4% at December 2014). There was a decrease of 2.8% in the share of revenues from Eastern Europe due to political and economic problems while there was an improvement of 24.8% from Asia Pacific and, in particular (+35.0%), from North America, showing 14.6% of the consolidated revenues.
“The figures for this semester are quite positive,” said Executive Director Stefano Porcellini. “We are very satisfied that this year is emerging as a record year for Group turnover. The above is happening despite the economic and political instability in various parts of the world, which makes growing the business difficult: Brazil, Russia and North Africa remain weak whilst there are worries from the Chinese financial markets turbulences that could have an impact on the real economy in the whole Asia. In the second half we will perform well due to the excellence of our people, products and services. The considerable investments made in innovation, quality, sales network and marketing over the last two years are giving the expected results.