DGAP-News

A.S. Création Tapeten AG: Annual General Meeting of Shareholders approves dividend of € 0.90 per share for 2020. New Supervisory Board Chairman elected. Q1 2021 in line with expectations - Seite 2

Successful start to the fiscal year 2021
At the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, the Managing Board presented the interim report for the period ended March 31, 2021. Under the difficult macroeconomic conditions in the first quarter of 2021, A.S. Création managed to increase its consolidated revenues by 6.7% or € 2.5 million from € 37.8 million in the previous year to € 40.3 million. Stronger revenue growth in the first quarter of 2021 was prevented by the COVID-19 situation in Germany. While sales revenues increased in all other regions, A.S. Création's domestic revenues declined by 11.4%. As a result, first-quarter revenues were still slightly below plan.

As revenues increased in sync with the gross profit margin, A.S. Création's results from operation improved significantly. Operating EBIT adjusted for one-time effects rose from € 2.0 million in the first quarter of 2020 to € 3.7 million in the current fiscal year, which was in line with the company's planning. This positive performance was achieved, among other things, thanks to the increased share of higher-quality and higher-priced products in the overall product range, which reflects the success of the product policy of the past years.

Outlook optimistic, but subject to risks
The Managing Board is satisfied with the performance in the first quarter of 2021 and confirmed the planning for the full year 2021, which projects revenues of between € 147 million and € 157 million (previous year: € 144.9 million) and EBIT adjusted for one-time effects of between € 9 million and € 11 million (previous year: € 8.8 million). The question of whether the full-year targets will be reached essentially depends on how long the existing restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic will remain in place and whether renewed restrictions will be imposed in the main output markets in the further course of the year. In addition, there is uncertainty with regard to further developments in the procurement markets. At present, A.S. Création is facing sharply rising raw materials prices, which are weighing on earnings.