Reporting financial results for the first half of its 2009/10 financial year, Heidelberg CEO Bernhard Schreier said incoming orders have stabilized “at the current low level” but that the company’s figures for the first six months are down significantly relative to the previous year.
“Incoming orders are bottoming out now, but we do not expect to see clear signs of improvement in the subsequent quarters of the current financial year,” said Schreier.
The German press manufacturer had incoming orders of €534 million in its second quarter (July 1 to September 30, 2009), which is slightly less than the previous quarter mark of €550 million. When considering the first six months, Heidelberg’s incoming orders of €1.08 billion fell by around 43 percent when compared to last year’s first six months, €1.87 billion.
Heidelberg’s weakened incoming orders were echoed in a second-quarter sales drop to €499 million, from €514 million in the first quarter of the company’s current financial year. In the first six months of the current financial year, sales declined by about 31 percent when compared to the previous year, moving from €1.461 billion to €1.013 billion.
According to Heidelberg’s financial statement, “As a result of low profit contributions due to weak sales, the cumulative figure for the operating result after two quarters was minus €128 million.” The previous year’s operating result was negative €45 million.
The company reported a positive free cash flow of just €11 million in the second quarter. In the first six months as a whole, free cash flow was negative €18 million, while the free cash flow for the first six month’s of the previous year was negative €273 million.
“Consequently, for the financial year as a whole, Heidelberg sales will fall well short of the figure for financial year 2008/09,” reads a company statement, forecasting the year-end for 2009/10. “As a result of the low sales volume, Heidelberg forecasts an operating result (excluding special items) of between EUR minus 110 million and EUR minus 150 million.”
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