Return to growth, EBITA rises
Almere, 23 July 2010, 07:00 CET
Key points of second quarter 2010
· Revenue was € 747 million and was 3% higher than the second quarter
last year
· The gross margin of 22.0% remained virtually stable with respect to the
previous quarters (Q1 2010: 22.1%, Q4 2009: 22.1%, Q3 2009: 21.9%);
in the second quarter of last year the gross margin was 22.6%
· The operating expenses amounted to € 139 million and remained stable
at the same level of the 1st quarter (€ 137 million); the costs were 4%
lower than in the second quarter of last year
· The underlying EBITA came to € 19 million compared with € 12 million
for the second quarter of 2009 (underlying EBITA Q1 2010: € 8 million)
Key figures
Underlying results* Q2 Q2 change 1st Half year 1st Half year change
(in € millions) 2010 2009 2010 2009
Revenue 747 722 3% 1,431 1,477 -3%
Gross result 164 163 1% 317 341 -7%
Operating expenses 139 145 -4% 275 304 -10%
EBITDA 25 18 39% 42 37 14%
EBITA 19 12 58% 29 23 26%
Net income 4 2 -1 0
* Underlying results are results excluding the one-off effects specified on page 13.
“Our revenue grew once again in the second quarter,” said Rob Zandbergen, CEO of USG
People. “This after 7 quarters of decline in revenue. The recovery gathered strength and
we saw extremely strong growth in a few countries. The early cyclical general activities
are growing faster than the late cyclical specialist and administrative activities.
Since we once again succeeded in keeping our operational expenses virtually the same,
the operational leverage worked well in the second quarter. Higher revenue translated
into a substantially higher result. The EBITA more than doubled compared to the previous
quarter. In the late cyclical Dutch market, the recovery lagged somewhat behind, as
expected. Revenue in the Netherlands improved slightly compared to the previous quarter
and indications from the field were increasingly positive. We are confident that the
recovery in the Netherlands will also be more visible in the results in the third
quarter.
The merging of labels in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany announced earlier is going
according to plan and will be completed in the third quarter. Assuming further
improvement in our markets, we are now excellently positioned to profit optimally from
the market recovery.”
The full press release can be found in the enclosed PDF.
HUG#1433631
2010 Second quarter and half-year results USG People N.V.
http://hugin.info/130803/R/1433631/379431.pdf