DGAP-News: hotel.de AG publishes key figures for 2009
(firmenpresse) - hotel.de AG / Final Results
26.03.2010 11:44
Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by
DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer / publisher is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
hotel.de AG publishes key figures for 2009
- At Euro 34.2 million, sales on a par with prior year
- EBIT exceeds expectations at Euro 1.0 million
- Proposed dividend of Euro 0.27 per share
- Projections for 2010: Growth in booking volume and sales
Nuremberg, 26 March 2010 - As had been expected, hotel.de AG, a leading
worldwide online hotel reservation service, generated sales of Euro 32.4
million in the fiscal year 2009 (previous year: Euro 32.7 million), thus
outperforming its sector. Sales in the hotel industry declined by 5.4% in
nominal terms in the past year. The sector primarily suffered from the
sharp decline in business travel resulting from the financial and economic
crisis. To offset these adverse effects, hotel.de introduced measures aimed
at increased sales and earnings at an early stage. The company expanded its
business with existing customers, strengthened its new business efforts and
increased its margin. Growing by 7.2% to Euro 19.2 million, domestic sales
showed a positive trend (previous year: Euro 17.9 million). The increase
reflects the trend towards more domestic trips among private travellers.
International activities contributed Euro 13.2 million to total sales
(previous year: Euro 14.8 million). At Euro 0.55 million, sales generated
by the young Meetings segment were on a par with the previous year's Euro
0.53 million in spite of the sharp decline in the market for conferences
and meetings.
Earnings clearly positive
Earnings picked up steadily in the course of the year, which is primarily
attributable to the process optimisation and cost-cutting measures
initiated by the company. In particular, personnel expenses were reduced by
3.6% from Euro 14.1 million to Euro 13.6 million. Accordingly, personnel
expenses as a percentage of sales stood at 41.9%, compared to 43.0% in the
previous year. In the fiscal year 2009, hotel.de employed 414 people on
average, which represents a decline of 17.9% from the previous year. The
cost of materials increased from Euro 3.2 million to Euro 3.6 million due
to higher commission payments to the participants in the sales partner
programme. Other operating expenses totalled Euro 16.2 million (previous
year: Euro 15.3 million) and primarily included marketing expenses in an
amount of Euro 7.9 million (previous year: Euro 7.5 million). This
represents 50.0% of sales (previous year: 46.9%). Ongoing improvements in
search engine marketing should help to reduce this ratio in the medium
term.
Overall, hotel.de generated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of
Euro 1.0 million (previous year: Euro 1.3 million) and thus exceeded its
projections of a balanced result issued at the beginning of the year. The
operating result of Euro -0.9 million (previous year: Euro 0.7 million) was
offset by the neutral result of Euro 1.9 million (previous year: Euro 0.8
million), which is reflected in other operating income. Net income for the
year amounted to Euro 1.0 million, as tax and interest expenses of Euro 0.6
million were offset by a financial result in the same amount.
'Given the difficult environment, the operating result is acceptable but
not satisfactory for the management. We nevertheless exceeded our target of
a balanced result, while at the same time continuing to invest in our
internationalisation, which has an annual effect of approx. Euro 4 - 4.5
million on the bottom line. We used the past fiscal year to optimally
position our company for the coming years,' said Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of
hotel.de AG.
As in the previous year, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of
hotel.de AG want to give the company's shareholders a share in the
performance of the fiscal year 2009 and will propose a dividend of Euro
0.27 per share to the Annual General Meeting on 20 May 2010.
Outlook on 2010
At the ITB, the international travel trade show, which was held in Berlin
in March 2010, industry representatives expressed their optimism about the
business trend in the current fiscal year. In particular, the business
travel segment should benefit from the global economic recovery. 'We
believe that booking volumes began to bottom out in 2009. Should the
environment continue to improve, we expect both booking volumes and sales
to increases at low double-digit rates,' said Dr. Raufer.
The company intends to continue to invest in its internationalisation and
has earmarked approx. Euro 4.0 million for this purpose. In addition, staff
will be hired in the fields of IT development and project management. The
operating result will nevertheless exceed the prior year level. The
measures aimed at increasing sales, optimising processes and cutting costs
will be continued in the coming months with a view to improving earnings
figures in the long term.
The 2009 Annual Report, which includes detailed information on the past
fiscal year, will be published at www.hotel.de, Investor Relations, on 21
April 2010.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel
reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and
www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for
booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost
savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus
always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate.
All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the
individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels'
own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de's own
myRES reservation system under hotel.de's standard user surface. hotel.de's
corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as
BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst&Young AG. Since January 2007,
hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and
booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and
money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by
this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info - the international brand of hotel.de AG - was created to
promote the company's expansion into international markets. To acquire new
customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the
UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China
(Shanghai). The company's high share of business customers with
international operations facilitates its entry into new markets. The aim is
to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for
business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then
step by step across the whole of Europe.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Press contact:
hotel.de AG
Timo Vavrinec
Hugo-Junkers-Str. 15-17
90411 Nuremberg
Tel: +49 (0)911-59832-0
Fax: +49 (0)911-59832-11
E-mail: presse(at)hotel.de
www.hotel.de
Haubrok Investor Relations GmbH
Simone Gorny
Kaistraße 16
40211 Düsseldorf
Tel: +49 (0)211-30126-130
Fax: +49 (0)211-30126-5130
E-mail: s.gorny(at)haubrok.de
www.haubrok.de
26.03.2010 11:44 Ad hoc announcement, Financial News and Media Release distributed by DGAP. Medienarchiv atwww.dgap-medientreff.deandwww.dgap.de---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language: English
Company: hotel.de AG
Hugo-Junkers-Str. 15-17
90411 Nürnberg
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)911 59832 2600
Fax: +49 (0)911 5983 211
E-mail: kleindienst(at)hotel.de
Internet: www.hotel.de
ISIN: DE0006910938
WKN: 691093
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (General Standard);
Freiverkehr in Düsseldorf, München, Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bereitgestellt von Benutzer: EquityStory
" alt="DE/RE PLC: BEBRA ENTERS INTO FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
Datum: 26.03.2010 - 11:44 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 18161
Anzahl Zeichen: 0
contact information:
Kategorie:
Business News
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 305 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"DGAP-News: hotel.de AG publishes key figures for 2009"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
hotel.de AG (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
