Stemmer Imaging results show 'satisfactory growth'

01 Oct 2019

Vision systems giant’s revenue up 8.3% to €109M despite challenging market conditions.

Camera and vision systems firm Stemmer Imaging has this week published final results for the 2018/2019 financial year. The company stated that it had “developed well in the reporting period, increasing revenue by 8.3% from €100.6 M to €109.0 M in the period from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.”

Its statement added, “This growth has been primarily due to regional diversification and expansion into new markets such as sports & entertainment and the medical sector."

Pre-tax earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs including the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, the switch to the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in May 2019 and costs in connection with acquisitions amounted to €10.0 M compared with €10.6 M in the previous year.

The company has therefore hit both its revenue forecast (ranging from €108 to €111 million) and earnings forecasts – pre-tax earnings of €10.0 to €12.2 million). The strong fourth quarter of 2018/2019, with what it described as “pleasing growth in revenue and incoming orders, which provides a tailwind and solid foundation for further development in the short 2019 financial year.”

Expansion strategy validated

The company further commented that it “feels that its expansion strategy has been validated with a balance between organic and inorganic growth in the form of profitable acquisitions at a national and international level. In this way, we have achieved an increasingly wide regional base, which is more independent of single markets. We have been able to escape the negative market trend with robust growth in the 2018/2019 financial year.”

With the acquisition of the French company Elvitec, the investment in the Austrian Perception Park, the acquisition of the Spanish firm Infaimon, and the establishment of a subsidiary in Italy, the company added that it is now present in all major European markets with its own offices and specialist personnel, stating, “Not only for this reason, incoming orders rose by 5.6% to €112.9 million in 2018-2019.”

Arne Dehn, CEO, commented, “Business performance was satisfactory in light of the challenging market environment. We saw gratifying revenue growth by expanding our business regionally and augmenting our product range with pioneering technologies. We want to follow through on this positive development and continue to grow sustainably and profitably in the planned short 2019 financial year.”

Plan to change financial year

To simplify its reporting processes, a proposal will be put forward at the company’s Annual General Meeting on 19 November 2019 to change the current financial year to the calendar year. If the Annual General Meeting approves the change, there will be a short financial year in the current second half of 2019 for the period from 1 July 2019 to 31 December 2019. Then 2020 would then be the first financial year corresponding to the calendar year.

For the planned short 2019 financial year, the Stemmer’s Management Board expects revenue ranging between €59.0 M and €65.0 M and pre-tax earnings of €5.5 M to €7.1 M. This forecast includes an expected revenue contribution of €8.5 M to €9.5 M and a planned EBITDA contribution of €1.1 M to €1.3 M from Infaimon. In the first half of 2018/2019, Stemmer generated revenue of €50.7 M and adjusted pre-tax earnings of €4.0 M.