FRANCOTYP-POSTALIA REMAINS ON GROWTH COURSE IN 2015

Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG, a manufacturer of franking machines and a solution provider for digital mail rooms, presented its consolidated financial statements today. These contain no substantial variations from the preliminary results released on 5 March 2015.

In 2014, the FP Group increased its revenue to EUR 170.3 million in spite of difficult economic conditions, compared to EUR 168.9 million in the previous year. EBITDA rose to EUR 23.1 million from EUR 22.2 million in 2013. As the result of planned higher depreciation for leased machines, EBIT was EUR 9.8 million following EUR 10.4 million in the previous year. Consolidated net income rose to EUR 5.2 million (2013: EUR 4.9 million).

In view of the solid and profitable growth in 2014, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting of shareholders to pay a dividend of EUR 0.16 per share for the past year. This is twice the value regarding EUR 0.08 dividend in the previous year. The company intends to pay out 35-50 percent of its adjusted annual net income for the coming years.

Higher investment in 2014 will ensure recurring revenues for many years

As planned, investment rose by EUR 8.2 million to EUR 23.1 million in 2014. Aside from expenditure on development, property, plant and equipment, the investment was primarily focused in the US leasing market. During the decertification, which lasts till end of 2015, the FP Group was able to replace to-be decertified franking machines in the US market with more than 25,000 new PostBase systems by the end of 2014, thus securing a large proportion of the installed base. This gives the company a firm base on which to generate sustainable and recurring revenues in its largest foreign market. As a result of the planned high investment, the free cash flow remained below the previous year's figure (EUR 6 million) at EUR -5.6 million.

Increase of revenue targeted between EUR 173 million and 177 million

Since the year began as anticipated, the FP Group confirmed its outlook of early March for all of 2015. According to this, revenue will increase again, ranging between EUR 173 million and EUR 177 million. An EBITDA of EUR 24 to 25 million and positive free cash flow are planned. The planned EBITDA does not take any one-off expenditure for the realignment of customer service in Germany into account.

At the Investor’s Day on 28 May 2015, the FP Group will also announce the major subjects of its enhanced medium-term strategy. FP CEO and CFO Hans Szymanski, explains: "The FP Group is unrivalled in Germany in combining analogue and digital mail management solutions. This gives our customers significant efficiency advantages and our company good growth potentials. We plan to leverage these potentials in the coming years and use profitable growth to create a solid basis for attractive dividends."