CHG-MERIDIAN AG
CHG-MERIDIAN AG: positive outlook for technology investments in 2013
CHG-MERIDIAN AG / Key word(s): Final Results/Strategic Company Decision CHG-MERIDIAN AG: positive outlook for technology investments in 2013 – Growth trajectory remains strong, particularly in international markets – Additional hiring in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2013 – New IT trends in companies: larger server solutions, smaller end-devices Weingarten, February 7, 2013 CHG-MERIDIAN AG, a non-listed portfolio manager specializing in technology finance solutions and headquartered in Weingarten (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), saw its gross profit rise significantly in 2012, despite a decline in new business. Lease originations totaled EUR804 million (2011: EUR858 million; a drop of 6.4 percent), which was lower than expected. Although total gross profit advanced by 11.3 percent to EUR131 million (2011: EUR118 million), lease originations in the main market, Germany, decreased by 7.6 percent to EUR413 million (2011: EUR446 million) despite gross profit going up by 12.1 percent to EUR90 million (2011: EUR81 million). The Federation of German Leasing Companies (BDL) expects there will be a return to habitual capital investment cycles – accompanied by stronger growth in technology investments – following a period in 2012 and before in which companies had been reluctant to invest as a result of the crisis in the euro zone. Business in southern Europe was more positive. The foreign subsidiaries in Italy, Spain and France generated an impressive volume of new business with lease originations of EUR114 million in 2012, a year-on-year gain of 18.5 percent (2011: EUR96 million), as announced by Jürgen Mossakowski, Chairman of the Management Board, at the Company's annual press conference in Weingarten. CHG-MERIDIAN is a technology portfolio manager in the areas of IT, industrial and healthcare technologies. Its services encompass everything from initial advice and concept development to the procurement of equipment and its installation in the workplace and the ultimate disposal or reconditioning and resale of used equipment. CHG-MERIDIAN has state-of-the-art technology – servers, computers, monitors, printers, industrial machinery, and medical equipment – worth EUR2.5 billion on its books, which it rents and leases to companies and public-sector clients in 19 countries. Boost to international market position: Mexican joint venture integrated into the Group CHG-MERIDIAN continued to pursue a strategy of international growth last year. Among other strategic measures, the Company fully integrated its joint venture in Mexico into the CHG-MERIDIAN Group, spending more than EUR26 million to increase its stake in CHG-MERIDIAN México S.A.P.I. de C.V to 100 percent in June 2012. The Mexican entity employs around 70 people. CHG-MERIDIAN has been operating in Mexico since 2009. In November 2012 the Company was able to open a new credit line of EUR 12 million with International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, in order to fund green investments in Mexico. Attainment of new record: remarketing of used equipment climbs substantially Reconditioning business – the secure data erasure and remarketing of used equipment – performed particularly encouragingly in 2012. Remarketing at CHG-MERIDIAN's Technology and Service Center near Frankfurt resulted in the resale of around 448,000 items of technical equipment in 2012 (2011: 415,000 items; a rise of 7.7 percent). This is the highest number achieved since CHG-MERIDIAN started offering remarketing services at the end of the technology lifecycle. The services offered include secure data erasure for PCs, laptops, and data center equipment in accordance with procedures certified by DEKRA and TÜV. CHG-MERIDIAN securely erased data from some 88,000 hard disks for customers in 2012 (2011: 73,617 hard disks; an increase of 19.8 percent). Increase in share capital and expansion of solid funding base CHG-MERIDIAN further improved its funding situation in 2012. The Company had already sustainably expanded its funding base in 2011 by launching special syndicated loan programs. This new type of cooperation continued last year. Loans totaling EUR105 million were arranged with 26 savings banks and credit cooperatives as part of the syndicated loan programs in 2012. Last year CHG-MERIDIAN raised a total of around EUR810 million (2011: EUR794 million) in funding from approximately 3,000 transactions worldwide. The risk was spread among 69 funding partners around the world. 'We have created a broad and therefore secure base of funding partners,' said Mossakowski. He explained that the reasons for this situation included the upturn in the capital markets, which had settled down again following the uncertainty seen between 2009 and 2011. The family-owned Company's sound financial health was underlined by the increase in share capital, which grew by EUR25 million to EUR75 million in 2012. 'The shareholders are thereby demonstrating their confidence in our Company and the long-term strategy that we are pursuing,' stated Mossakowski. As the funding base remains very strong, CHG-MERIDIAN was able to maintain a significant level of cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2012, he added. CHG-MERIDIAN's capital strength is enabling it to maintain its long-term growth strategy. Workforce expansion: additional hiring planned for 2013 CHG-MERIDIAN is one of the largest employers in the sector, with 469 employees in Germany and 774 employees worldwide. At the annual press conference, Mossakowski announced that the number of employees is expected to increase to 623 in Germany and to over 900 worldwide by 2014 in view of the planned global growth and the Company's move from being purely a leasing company to an integrated technology portfolio manager. The workforce is to be expanded by offering additional traineeships, including the provision of four instead of two places on the study partnership scheme with the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) for students starting at CHG-MERIDIAN in 2013. 'We intend to offer a total of 12 traineeships in 2013,' said Mossakowski. 'As our business model is fairly complex, we need to train and develop our employees ourselves.' CHG-MERIDIAN has set up its own academy specifically for this purpose. New IT trends in companies: mobile technology takes over from desktops Looking ahead to CeBIT in early March, CHG-MERIDIAN is risking a technological prediction, which it has based on the technology usage of over 8,000 B2B customers worldwide. On the one hand, companies are increasingly investing in mobile devices such as laptops and tablet PCs. Classic PCs are gradually losing their importance as essential desktop hardware. On the other hand, CHG-MERIDIAN is seeing far higher investment in powerful server infrastructures aimed at creating self-contained, private cloud solutions. Together these two factors are leading to a shift in spending and to an overall increase in volume. 'The number of mobile devices such as tablets that CHG-MERIDIAN finances for companies climbed by around 150 percent in 2012, while the volume of investment in thin clients grew by more than 40 percent,' said Mossakowski. 'This is a clear sign to us that a sea change in technology is taking place, one that we look upon favorably.' Willingness to invest: companies demonstrate optimism at the start of the year In the words of the chairman of the Management Board, CHG-MERIDIAN has started this year with a lot more confidence than it did last year. 'Conditions have calmed down considerably, and companies are showing slightly more inclination to invest,' stated Mossakowski. He therefore expects the economic recovery to be followed by a higher volume of lease originations. 'But we are not simply waiting for the market. We will generate further organic growth in 2013 through our equipment leasing subsidiary, by expanding our service and product portfolio throughout the lifecycle of the technologies we manage, by enlarging our Management Board, and by focusing on new, lucrative international markets,' concluded Mossakowski.
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About CHG-MERIDIAN End of financial news The picture belonging to this press release can be found here: http://newsfeed2.equitystory.com/meridian/200912.html Caption: Jürgen Mossakowski 07.02.2013 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. DGAP’s Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de |
200912 07.02.2013 |