DGAP-News

FAST Casualwear: Good financial position despite a challenging first quarter 2013 - Seite 2

The profit from operations (EBIT) went down by 16.8 per cent, from 5.5
million Euros in the first quarter 2012 to 4.6 million Euros in the first
quarter 2013. However, with a gross profit margin of 26.7 per cent (Q1
2012: 28.6 per cent) and an EBIT margin of 21.9 per cent (Q1 2012: 26.0 per
cent) FAST Casualwear continues to be very profitable - despite higher
costs due to increased promotion and advertisement in order to boost FAST's
brand awareness.

Net profit decreased from EUR 3.9 million in Q1 2012 by 18.5 per cent to
EUR 3.2 million in Q1 2013. This represents a net profit margin of 15.4 per
cent (Q1 2012: 18.7 per cent).
Strong financial basis

FAST's equity increased by 8.5 per cent from 67.6 million Euros to 73.3
million Euros. In the first three months of 2013 FAST further improved its
equity ratio to 68.3 per cent (December 31, 2012: 68.1 per cent), which
provides the company with a favourable starting position for further
development.


Further growth expected

For the full financial year 2013 the company expects increasing revenues
due to its strong production capabilities and its expanding distribution
network, even if the growth might be slightly slower than in 2012 due to
the uncertain market environment. All in all, FAST anticipates a revenue
growth of 10 per cent measured in the local currency Renminbi and a stable
EBIT margin of around 20 per cent.

In the future FAST will focus on further increasing its production
capacities by building a new production facility to serve the FAST brand,
which is expected to have a higher production capacity than the existing
facility. In the first quarter 2013 FAST made an important step into this
direction and paid a further deposit for the acquisition of a property. The
anticipated date for the start of construction is the end of 2013 or the
beginning of 2014.

Furthermore, FAST will continue to work on the improvement of its brand
awareness by producing innovative products. During the first three months
of 2013 FAST introduced approximately 130 new footwear styles and around 60
new apparel styles to the market.

'In regards to our increasing coverage of sales outlets, the joint effort
with our distributors and the increasing popularity of FAST products, we're
confident to increase sales and maintain our profit margins in order to
meet the given guidance for 2013,' says Wing Chi Chong, CEO of FAST
Casualwear.


About FAST Casualwear AG

FAST Casualwear AG is the German holding company of FAST Group, a Chinese