DGAP-News: Basler AG: Business figures for the first nine months of 2019 - Basler increases sales and incoming orders and narrows the forecast for 2019

Corporate News
Business Figures / Nine-month Report

Business figures for the first nine months of 2019:
Basler increases sales and incoming orders and narrows the forecast for 2019

- Incoming orders: Euro 122.7 million (previous year: Euro 112.2 million, 9 %)

- Sales: Euro 123.2 million (previous year: Euro 116.4 million, 6 %)

- EBITDA: Euro 23.1 million (previous year: Euro 31.0 million, -25 %)

- Pre-tax result: Euro 13.1 million (previous year: Euro 23.2 million, -44 %)

- Pre-tax return rate: 11 % (previous year: 20 %, -9 pp)

- Period surplus: Euro 9.3 million (previous year: Euro 17.3 million, -46 %)

- Free cash flow: Euro -14.6 million(previous year: Euro -3.8 million)

Ahrensburg, November 5, 2019 - BASLER AG, the leading global manufacturer of industrial cameras, is presenting final figures for the first nine months of 2019 today.

In a declining market environment, the group's incoming orders increased to Euro 122.7 million (previous year: Euro 112.2 million, 9 %) in the first nine months. The group's sales of Euro 123.2 million were 6 % above the previous year's figure of Euro 116.4 million. In the third quarter, incoming orders grew by 19 % to Euro 38.5 million (previous year: Euro 32.4 million) and sales by 25 % to Euro 41.4 million (previous year: Euro 33.0 million).

The strategic expansion of the organization during the past quarters and the previous year and the subsequent cost increases, particularly in development, marketing and sales, led to a decrease of the pre-tax result to Euro 13.1 million (previous year: Euro 23.2 million, -44 %) due to a very weak market development and despite a slight growth in sales, compared to the previous year. The after-tax result amounted to Euro 9.3 million (previous year: Euro 17.3 million). At the end of the quarter, the free cash flow summed up to Euro -14.6 million (previous year: Euro -3.8 million). This includes extraordinary payments due to the acquisition of the Chinese distribution business of MVLZ Sanbao Xingye.

The integration processes in China and at Silicon Software GmbH made good progress in the past months. Firstly, the transactions considerably strengthen the direct market access in China and secondly, the group's technology and product portfolio.

So far, the financial year has been modest, however, according to expectations and within the forecast communicated to the capital market at the beginning of the year. Due to the development of incoming orders within the past months and feedback from customers, the management expects a stable business development on a seasonally somewhat weaker business level in the fourth quarter. Even though the current macroeconomic conditions have rather dampening effects and the risks of a global recession are increasing, the management is positive about the future in general. Major growth drivers such as increasing automation, image processing in new application fields outside the factory as well as the networking of intelligent machines and products (Industry 4.0 / IOT) are intact. In view of the advance of the year and the subsequent improving visibility, the management narrows the forecast for the full financial year. According to this, currently available information, the group's sales will be within a corridor of Euro 160 - 164 million at a pre-tax return rate margin of 8 - 10 %.

The full nine-month report 2019 can be seen on the company's website (www.baslerweb.com).
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Basler is the leading manufacturer of high-quality cameras and image processing components for industry, medicine, traffic and a variety of other markets. The company's product portfolio encompasses area scan and line scan cameras in compact housing dimensions, camera modules in board level variants for embedded solutions, 3D cameras, as well as frame grabber cards. The catalog is rounded off by our user-friendly pylon SDK plus a broad spectrum of accessories, including several developed specially for Basler and optimally harmonized for our cameras. Basler has three decades of experience in computer vision and is home to approximately 800 employees.

Basler AG, Hardy Mehl (CFO/COO), An der Strusbek 60 - 62, 22926 Ahrensburg, Tel. +49 (0)4102-463100, ir/baslerweb.com, www.baslerweb.com, ISIN DE 0005102008