Shareholders resolve a substantial dividend increase

Profit share of €0.33 per share / technotrans distributes half of the annual profit / Board of Directors confirms the outlook of the company

technotrans AG continued its growth course in the 2014 financial year. The shareholders will now participate in the positive business development: On Wednesday, the Annual General Meeting resolved a substantial dividend increase from €0.20 to €0.33 per eligible share. In addition, the Board of Directors confirmed the outlook of the company for 2015.    

"We had a good start to the new year. The strategic realignment of technotrans is increasingly bearing fruit," said Henry Brickenkamp, spokesman of the Board of Directors of technotrans AG, during his speech at the General Annual Meeting in Münster, Germany. The global economic environment for the current business year 2015 is positive all round. In addition, Henry Brickenkamp announced the prospect of acquisitions: "We still intend to accelerate our growth by way of suitable acquisitions." technotrans is holding "numerous talks" in this context – however, the associated opportunities and risks have to be weighed against the price expectations. 

The Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board proposed the distribution of a dividend of €0.33 per share to the General Annual Meeting, which corresponds to half of the annual profit of 4.4 million euros. In the previous year, technotrans distributed €0.20 per share. The General Annual Meeting approved this suggestion as well as the other agenda items (discharge of the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board and the election of the auditor and group auditor for the year 2015) by a large majority. 

Right before, Henry Brickenkamp had confirmed the outlook of the company for the current business year. According to him, the turnover will reach the value of 116 to 120 million euros, which had already been announced in March. In view of the improvement of the operating result in the past quarters, the targeted EBIT margin will be between 6.8 and 7.3 per cent.

This will in fact be a seamless continuance of the company's growth in the previous year: "After several years of consolidation, technotrans has been able, for the first time since the global financial crisis, to increase its turnover and profit without the help of acquisitions," said Henry Brickenkamp. The turnover increased by 6.8 per cent to 112.4 million euros in 2014. This was mainly due to the consistent implementation of the strategy to open up new markets beyond the company's core business segment in the field of printing presses. The operating profit increased by 47.6 per cent to 6.8 million euros in 2014.

The current year has also been marked by a positive start. In the week before the General Annual Meeting, technotrans already announced an increase in turnover of 12.9 per cent to 30.6 million euros for the first quarter. The operating profit increased by 63.5 per cent to 2.3 million euros. As a result of the significant increase in profit from operations, the EBIT margin increased to 7.5 per cent (previous year: 5.2 per cent). After taxes, the group earnings increased by 72.9 per cent to 1.5 million euros.

The full annual report for 2014 and several interim reports can be downloaded from the technotrans website under Investor Relations - Financial Reports.