EANS-News

Semperit AG Holding / Significant improvement in operating earnings in 2018 ? particularly due to Industrial sector ? downward trend stopped - Seite 2

effects for the Industrial Sector in the next two years," says Füllenbach. Since
the beginning of the restructuring and transformation phase, the complexity in
the Industrial Sector has been significantly reduced due to the shutdown of the
production sites in France and China as well as the sale of the production site
in Italy. This has led to high non-recurring charges. From today's perspective,
no further significant expenses from the further optimisation of the production
footprint (in the Industrial Sector) are to be expected in 2019.

Burdens by Sempermed impairment
In the Medical Sector, there was not only a decrease in volumes sold, but at the
end of the first half of the year an impairment of EUR 55.2 million had to be
recognised in context of an impairment test, which affected the reported Group
earnings accordingly.

Against the background of the particular problem complexity in the Medical
Sector, the transformation project was consciously and carefully designed for a
total duration of 36 months: the structural challenges in business processes
(operations), in IT as well as in the product and market approach require that
time.

In 2018, the Group's revenue increased slightly to EUR 878.5 million, whereas
the Industrial Sector achieved an increase in revenue of 5.6%. In contrast to
this, revenue in the Medical Sector declined by 7.6%. Adjusted for the negative
one-off effects of EUR 3.9 million from the shutdown of the Sempertrans site in
China, EBITDA increased from EUR 35.8 million to EUR 50.3 million, while the
adjusted EBITDA margin rose from 4.1% to 5.7%. The reported EBITDA was EUR 46.4
million in 2018 after EUR 100.2 million in 2017.

Accordingly, adjusted EBIT also developed very positively, increasing from EUR -
0.8 million in 2017 to EUR 15.4 million in 2018, while the adjusted EBITDA
margin rose from -0.1% to 1.7%. The reported EBIT amounted to EUR -47.7 million
in 2018 after EUR 37.6 million in 2017 (including one-off effects from the joint
venture transaction in Thailand).

Adjusted earnings after tax totalled EUR -17.3 million in 2018 compared with the
adjusted value of EUR -43.3 million a year earlier. The reported value for
earnings after tax was EUR -80.4 million for 2018 compared with EUR -26.3
million for 2017 and was significantly burdened by the impairment in the
Sempermed segment (EUR 55.2 million) as well as the expenses for the shutdown of
the Sempertrans site in China (EUR 7.8 million). The adjusted earnings per share
amounted to EUR -1.07 in 2018 after EUR -2.11 in 2017 (adjusted). The reported
values were EUR -4.13 after EUR -1.25.