VIPsight - April 2013
COMPANIES
Daimler benefits from EADS reform
At an Extraordinary General Meeting in Amsterdam the shareholders blessed the new management and shareholder structure of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), providing for a limitation of state influence in future. The agreement provides that Lagardère and Daimler may sell their shares in the Airbus parent group completely, but without thereby affecting the balance of power between the German and French sides. The German state itself will be a major shareholder. Through the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau it will like France hold a share of the voting capital capped at 12 per cent. Spain will continue to keep four per cent. Thomas Enders has thus succeeded in revamping the company after the failed merger with BAE Systems. Because of the annulment of the existing shareholder pact, the German carmaker had to evaluate its EADS shares again. The current higher market price ups its earnings before interest and taxes by around 2.7 billion euros. That, however, will not be booked until the second quarter, when the shareholder pact is finally dissolved.
Manz: Solar flop, Smartphone top
The crisis in the solar industry has also got to special machine builders Manz AG. The CDax company last year suffered a decline in sales in the solar field from 73 to 16 million euros. In contrast, sales increased significantly in the areas of Display and Battery from the previous year: machines for production of displays made 111 million euros – an increase of 13 percent – and machinery for the production of lithium batteries for the automotive industry even showed a sales increase by 53%, to 15 million euros.
But Manz does not want to renounce the solar division: the SME expects double-digit sales growth for 2013. The flagging solar industry should also help. After all, the Chinese have assembled one of their solar parks with CIGS solar modules produced in Manz facilities.
PNE Wind: Bond to blow money into the cashbox
Wind-farm developer PNE Wind AG wants in the first half of this year to place a corporate bond in the Prime Standard of the German Stock Exchange. The aim is issue proceeds of €100 million. With this, the CDax-listed wind-energy company wants to fund future organic and external growth.
In the offing is possible 50 percent participation in a company engaged in the development of onshore wind farms in Germany and abroad. Further investments are planned in the area of wind-farm projects and the expansion of onshore and offshore pipelines.
Kontron: dividend despite losses
In spite of substantially negative figures and few rosy prospects, small-computer manufacturer Kontron AG distributed a dividend of four cents per share. Last year the amount of the distribution was still at 20 cents per share. But the decline in orders plus strong pressure on prices and high costs for an optimization programme brought the TecDax company’s operating profit for 2012 down to around minus 33 million euros.