S&T AG: 2015's objectives exceeded

• Consolidated income of EUR 17.6 million outperforms 2015's plan of EUR 15.0 million
• Revenues from sales rise to EUR 468.2 million (PY: EUR 385.5 million)
• Operative cash flow grows to EUR 26.7 million (PY: EUR 20.6 million)
• Proposed increasing of dividend to 8 cents (PY: 7 cents)
• Orders backlog of EUR 181 million (PY: EUR 157 million) and dynamic market for Internet of Things enable setting forth the course of growth

Linz, 30.03.2016. S&T AG (www.snt.at) is sustaining its strong growth. Its very positive fourth quarter (revenue from sales of EUR 166 million, PY: EUR 132 million) boosted the company to new records in financial year 2015. Revenues from sales rose y-on-y by 21% to EUR 468.2 million, up sharply from 2014's EUR 385.5 million. How successfully S&T performed in 2015 is also to be seen in the key indicators of profitability, which - notwithstanding start-up costs in the “Appliances Smart Energy” segment - were greater than the figures contained in corporate plans. Gross margin's increase to 33.9% (PY: 33.0%) yielded an EBITDA of EUR 28.3 million (PY: EUR 22.9 million). Consolidated income rose by 26% to EUR 17.6 million (PY: EUR 14.0 million) and thus exceeded the planned amount of EUR 15.0 million by 17%. Earnings per share jumped to 36 cents (PY: 32 cents).

The “Services EE” is S&T's largest segment. It achieved revenues from sales of EUR 264.3 million (PY: EUR 217.2 million). S&T's technology segments proved to be the main drivers of growth in financial year 2015. They had revenues from sales of EUR 133.3 million (PY: EUR 78.8 million), of which our new “Appliances Smart Energy” segment was responsible for EUR 50.8 million (PY: EUR 24.8 million), and of which the “Appliances Security” one registered EUR 82.6 Mo (PY: EUR 53.9 million). Our “Services DACH” segment has been systematically withdrawing from low-margin areas. This caused revenues from sales to come to EUR 70.5 million (PY: EUR 89.6 million) - and EBITDA to rise from EUR 1.1 million (2014) to EUR 2.5 million (2015).

Operative cash flow did even better than the company's business. The former rose 29.6% to EUR 26.7 million (PY: EUR 20.6 million). In a first for the company, S&T AG has a net cash balance of EUR 9.4 million (PY: net debt of EUR 1.5 million). Equity rose sharply to EUR 102.2 million (PY: EUR 89.7 million).
S&T's earnings and liquidity have caused the company's Executive and Supervisory Boards to suggest increasing the dividend to 8 cents per share. This payout constitutes for income tax purposes a capital repayment in cash in accordance with Article 4 Paragraph 12 of Austria's Income Tax Act.

Management expects 2016 to be another year of strong growth. This will result from the pursuing of the strategy formulated and implemented over the past few years. Drivers of this growth will be once more the “Appliances Security” and “Appliances Smart Energy” segments. 2016's rises will be impelled by the strong demand for services in the Internet of Thing's security area. This demand will yield annual increases of 25% in 2016 and beyond for the segments. The great amount of sales registered in the fourth quarter notwithstanding, the order backlog came as of the end of 2015 to EUR 181 million, and was thus up strongly from that of the previous year (EUR 156.7 million). Management's plans foresee revenues from sales in 2016 of more than EUR 500 million, with consolidated income set to out-rise that. This will be thanks to the strong performances to be turned in by the company's technology segments.