DGAP-News

Bechtle AG: Continued Success Story with Strong Third Quarter - Seite 2

the headcount thus went up by 491, an increase of 6.9 per cent. The
increase was the result of acquisitions as well as new recruitment. On 1
September, more than 160 young people embarked on their training or
integrated degree programme with Bechtle. The training ratio in Germany was
7.8 per cent.

Annual forecast adjusted upwards
In view of the good performance of the first nine months of 2016, Bechtle
is confident that it will be able to reach the goal formulated in March
2016, which provides for a significant revenue and earnings increase for
the year as a whole. However, the Executive Board has decided to step up to
the original forecast, which had predicted an EBT margin at the prior-year
level. In the course of the year, Bechtle has continually succeeded in
noticeably increasing the margin, especially in the IT system house &
managed services segment. Moreover, a large-scale forfaiting in the third
quarter resulted in a positive one-time effect of EUR1.3 million on the
financial earnings. Against this backdrop, the Executive Board expects a
slight increase of the EBT margin for 2016 as a whole. "The earnings
development in the year to date has exceeded our expectations. In view of
the fact that we have significantly outperformed the prior year especially
in the IT system house & managed services segment, we feel that a slight
EBT margin increase would also be realistic at the group level. However,
this will only be possible if the economic framework conditions remain
intact in the fourth quarter and we do not experience any supply
bottlenecks on the supplier side towards the end of the year", says Dr.
Thomas Olemotz.

Bechtle KPIs for the Third Quarter and Nine-Month Period of 2016

                         Q3/2016 Q3/2015   +/-    9M/2016   9M/2015    +/-
Revenue            EURk  730,027 686,178  +6.4%  2,158,325 1,994,690  +8.2%
 Domestic          EURk  519,632 491,136  +5.8%  1,506,253 1,371,049  +9.9%
 Abroad            EURk  210,395 195,042  +7.9%    652,072   623,641  +4.6%
 IT system house   EURk  495,528 467,567  +6.0%  1,447,579 1,321,736  +9.5%
 IT e-commerce     EURk  234,499 218,611  +7.3%    710,746   672,954  +5.6%
EBITDA             EURk   42,230  40,069  +5.4%    115,394   101,896 +13.2%
 IT system house   EURk   29,174  26,024 +12.1%     79,352    66,553 +19.2%
 IT e-commerce     EURk   13,056  14,045  -7.0%     36,042    35,343  +2.0%
EBIT               EURk   35,159  33,186  +5.9%     94,376    82,354 +14.6%
 IT system house   EURk   23,266  20,307 +14.6%     62,009    50,619 +22.5%
 IT e-commerce     EURk   11,893  12,879  -7.7%     32,367    31,735  +2.0%