| |
Good First Quarter for GfK
The GfK Group has announced healthy first quarter results with sales up 5.2% to Euros 261.3m, with organic growth of 6.8%. Margin was up from 8.5% a year previously to 9.5%, and adjusted operating income rose by 17.3% to Euros 24.8m.
GfK Group: Key performance indicators *
| In EUR m | Q1 2006 | Q1 2007 | Change in % |
| Sales | 248.5 | 261.3 | + 5.2 |
| Gross income from sales | 71.3 | 83.1 | + 16.6 |
| EBITDA | 27.1 | 32.1 | + 18.4 |
| Adjusted operating income | 21.1 | 24.8 | + 17.3 |
| Margin in percent ** | 8.5 | 9.5 | |
| Operating income | 15.8 | 20.1 | + 27.4 |
| EBIT | 16.6 | 20.9 | + 26.0 |
| Consolidated total income | 7.5 | 10.4 | + 38.8 |
| Earnings per share in EUR | 0.18 | 0.26 | |
* Figures from the Management Information System – rounding differences may occur
** Adjusted operating income in relation to sales
Business sectors
All five main GfK divisions achieved a year-on-year increase in sales for the first three months. Custom Research sales rose 3.3% to EUR 118.7m, with organic growth of 4.4% offset by currency effects. Income of EUR 5.7m and margin of 4.8% were little changed. The Retail and Technology division saw sales rise 6.8% to EUR 57.0m, with organic growth of 8.2%. Adjusted operating income rose by 13.7% to EUR 11.2m, while the margin of 19.7% was up 1.2% and was the highest of all divisions. Consumer Tracking recorded sales growth of just 1.1% to EUR 23.2m, mostly organic, with income up by 38.7% to EUR 0.4m.
Media saw sales up 15.8% to EUR 29.6m (organic 19.3%), boosted by a good performance from US subsidiary Mediamark Research but hampered by currency effects. Income increased 22.8% to EUR 5.6m, a margin of 18.9%. Organic growth in income amounted to 27.7 percentage points.
HealthCare division sales rose 4.5% to EUR 31.7m (organic growth 8.4%, reduced by currency effects). Growth in income was the highest for any division, up 52.2% to Euros 2.7m (organic growth 51.6 percentage points).
As scheduled, sales in the firm's internally focused Other division were down 15.5% on the prior year to Euros 1.1m, with income up by 20.7%.
Results by region
In Germany the group recorded EUR 62.4m of sales in Q1, with organic growth of 3.5%. Western Europe, Middle East and Africa had sales of EUR 109.8m, up 4.1% (3.5% organic). Central and Eastern Europe contributed EUR 13.5m with growth of 19.2%, exclusively organic. In North America, sales were up 3.8% to EUR 58.8m (organic 12.5%), but the high Euro exchange rate reduced sales by 8.8 percentage points. Latin American sales totalled EUR 5.3m, up 16.0% - organic growth of 21.8% was offset by ?currency changes. In Asia and the Pacific sales were up 13.1% to EUR 11.5m, with less than half of this growth organic. Organic growth for the region as a whole excluding Japan totaled 12.5%. Including Japan, this figure amounted to 7.8%. Currency effects reduced sales by 5.6 percentage points.
In the first three months of 2007, GfK added a net 304 employees for a total of 8,207 full-time staff. The order book at the end of April covered 60.6% of target sales for 2007, compared with 58.3% a year previously.
GfK expects to increase sales organically by more than 5% in 2007, with a margin 'set to exceed 13.5%' and strong growth in all business divisions.
The firm is on the web at www.gfk.com .
|
