Source : EuropeanMarkets
Muriel De Lathouwer, Managing Director & CEO of EVS commented:
“The broadcast industry market continues to be challenging, with macro-economic headwinds and technology transitions still hampering investment decisions. But after a disappointing first half of 2015, our third quarter was more in line with our expectations."
"As indicated in August, we see some shift of business from 1H15 to 2H15. In addition, there were a higher number of upgrades to the XT3 platform than initially expected, due to the announced end-of-support of the XT2 platform as from January 1, 2016. These resulted in revenue of EUR 28.2 million, and an order book (to be invoiced in 2015) of EUR 31.4 million (+66.1% vs 2014, excl. big event rentals)."
"Consequently, we fine-tune our revenue estimate for 2015 (between EUR 110 million and EUR 115 million) towards the top-end of the previously announced range. Thanks to strict cost control, and despite currency effects, we also review the opex guidance, with a low single digit growth expected in 2015 vs 2014."
"Finally, the recruitment of a new CFO is progressing well, and we should be able to make an announcement soon.”
Highlights Third Quarter
Revenue of EUR 28.2 million, -6.9% excl. event rentals and at constant currency, compared to 3Q14.
As expected, improvement of revenue in the second half of 2015 EBIT of EUR 7.2 million (25.6% EBIT margin), net profit of EUR 4.8 million
Interim gross dividend of EUR 0.50 per share
Outlook
The order book (to be invoiced in 2015) on October 31, 2015 amounts to EUR 31.4 million, +66.1% compared to last year at the same date. In addition to this order book to be invoiced in 2015, EVS already has EUR 13.7 million of orders to be invoiced in 2016 and beyond (incl. EUR 3.5 million big event rentals).
The slowdown witnessed in the broadcast industry persists due to the various technology transitions creating uncertainty on the customer side, longer investment and sale cycles and macro-economic headwinds. On the other side, there has been a higher than initially planned number of upgrades to the XT3 platform in 2H15, following the announcement by EVS of the end-of-support of the 10-year old XT2 platform. As a result, the EVS management now expects revenue in 2015 to be in the range of EUR 110 - 115 million. 2015 is an uneven year which, as usual, will only include a limited amount of rentals for big sporting events (compared to a record EUR 14.3 million in 2014). Management now expects low single digit opex growth in 2015.
This is lower than the previous guidance, mainly due stricter cost control, some postponed and reduced investments and projects.
Source : Press release quarterly results EVS Broadcast Equipment SA , November 13, 2015.