Gosheim, 5 July 2017 – Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG performed better than expected in the first five months of 2017: As the Board of Management announced during today’s Annual General Meeting, the Group turnover of the Swabian machine tool manufacturer Hermle increased by around 7 % to € 155.7 mill. between January an May as compared with same period in the previous year (€ 146.1 mill.), with correspondingly improved results. A domestic business volume of € 72.1 mill. was generated (previous year: € 61.9 mill.) and an overseas business volume of € 83.6 mill. (previous year: € 84.2 mill.). This means that even the foreign business that was lagging noticeably until the end of March has also recovered well. Incoming orders rose across the Group by around 11 % to € 168.0 mill. (previous year: € 150.7 mill.). Of this, € 66.1 mill. (previous year € 65.6 mill.) have come from domestic customers, and € 101,9 mill. (previous year € 85.1 mill.) from abroad. At the end of May 2017, orders on hand totalled more than € 106.1 mill. At the beginning of the year the total was € 93.8 mill., and on 31 May 2016 it was €127.8 mill.
In view of this, the Board of Management considers that a Group turnover for the full year 2017 could match that of the previous year. If the very good progress can be maintained, the turnover could be somewhat higher still. (2016: € 394.0 mill.) Extrapolating from the current situation, the operating result will be approximately the same or slightly below the 2016 figure (€ 99.8 mill.). The figures for these results may be expected to correspond generally with those of the turnover, but the start-up costs for the two large, future-oriented projects at the company headquarters in Gosheim and in neighbouring Zimmern ob Rottweil, as well as the lack in 2017 of high revenues from individual foreign orders that boosted the 2016 figures, will not be fully compensated in this year’s figures.
During the Annual General Meeting, the Hermle Board of Management also reported on the two major projects for securing the future that are running on schedule. The construction work for extending the metal-cutting manufacturing facilities on the company headquarters site will be completed during the summer holiday close-down 2017. The installation of an additional large machining centre for this strategically important manufacturing sector will follow in the late autumn. Production of machine beds has already started at the new site in Zimmern ob Rottweil. At first, these base bodies for Hermle machining centres were produced for a new machine model that will be presented in September at the EMO in Hanover. Currently, series production is getting under way for machine beds for those model series that are already available. By the end of the year, production will be extended to other variants and production volumes will be increased. Together with the apprentices who were taken on after completion of their training, the new posts for the Zimmern location led to an increase in the total number of Group employees as per end of May to 1034 (31 December 2016: 1018).
In addition, the Annual General Meeting also approved the recommendation of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board to increase the dividend: In addition to the unchanged base dividend of € 0.80 per ordinary share and € 0.85 per preference share, a bonus of € 12.00 Euro is to be paid out for each share (previous year € 10.00). This amounts to an increase in the disbursement for a preference share to € 12.85 (previous year € 10.85).
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Pictorial material: Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG, Udo Hipp, T 07426 95 6238
E-Mail: udo.hipp@hermle.de
