VIPsight - July 2013
COMPANIES
Tipp24: Lucky move
The Hamburg internet lottery provider and SDax company is finding Germany too restrictive. On account of the strict laws governing games of chance in the Federal Republic, the online platform is moving to London and will focus its attention in future on Great Britain, the USA and Spain. With the move, the lottery company will also drive forward its international expansion. But the company will continue its listing with Deutsche Börse.
Hornbach: Delayed season for D-I-Yers
The SDax listed D-I-Y group Hornbach made a bad start to the year. Until April 2013, snow, frost and rain hindered demand for building supplies and garden articles. Sales by Hornbach-Holding AG from March to May were nearly three percent lower than in the previous year’s period.
Despite its poor first quarter, Germany’s third-largest D-I-Y chain with stores in nine European countries continues to adhere to its original projection for the whole year 2013/14. The company reckons with unchanged high demand for building and renovation, and aims to slightly exceed its previous year’s sales of 3.23 billion Euros.
Mobotix: Friendlier stock market segment
The medium-sized company Mobotix has announced its voluntary switch from Prime Standard to the less tightly regulated Entry Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The board regards this stock market segment as appropriate for the company due to its balanced and company-friendly follow-up obligations. But the stock is expected to remain listed in the Prime Standard until the end of the year.
This year is also full of personnel changes for the provider of video security systems. Firstly a new CFO arrived at the beginning of the year, and June saw the departure of two long-standing members of the supervisory board.
With its stock exchange listing in 2007, Mobotix could record a history of success. Launched in the Entry Standard in autumn 2007, the stock rose by some 90 percent by the end of the year in spite of the tight economic situation, and moved to Prime Standard as early as spring 2008. Last year the software specialist recorded a sales increase of more than eleven percent. The upward trend continued in the first half of the current financial year, with sales rising by three percent.
Heraeus: Dental sector abandoned
The medium-sized precious metals and technology group Heraeus has sold its dental division to the Japanese stock-market-listed firm Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (MCI) from Tokyo. Heraeus Kulzer is a provider of dental solutions and materials, e.g. for prosthetic restoration and local anesthesia. The division, with 1,400 employees worldwide, 685 of them in Germany, will be completely taken over by MCI and the existing management will stay in place.
Recently the sector had stagnated in terms of product turnover, and now the aim is for it to benefit from new development opportunities with MCI. With this move, the family company Heraeus is returning to a stronger focus on its core business. Most recently, the company from Hanau suffered a fall of 13 percent in annual product turnover, due among other things to the catastrophic development of the photovoltaic sector. But the board remains cautiously optimistic for the current year. Numerous acquisitions in the course of a new market orientation will help to secure the company’s future results.
In 2010, the SME had placed a bond with a volume of 250 million euros with private and institutional investors. The bond, which was admitted to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, has a maturity until May 29, 2017.