Struer, 2017-01-13 07:59 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Company Announcement No 16.15

Q2 highlights

“The Group launched a considerable number of new products and especially the Bang & Olufsen segment grew, supported by the catch-up effect from the delayed TV product launches in previous quarters. Another double-digit sales increase in B&O PLAY contributed to the Group’s growth of 19 per cent in the second quarter, where we also saw a significant improvement in profitability. Overall, the results after the first half of the financial year were in line with our expectations and confirmed that we are on track to deliver the guidance for the full year,” says CEO Henrik Clausen.

• Capacity costs increased by 10.3 per cent compared to last year, mainly driven by accelerated depreciations and higher development costs.

• EBITDAC was DKK 70 million against negative DKK 4 million last year. The improvement in profitability was driven by the double-digit increase in revenue, the improvement in the Group gross margin and a moderate increase in capacity costs.

• Free cash flow was DKK 131 million against DKK 63 million last year.

• The Group’s total revenue for the first half of the 2016/17 financial year was DKK 1,383 million, an increase of 12 per cent (15 per cent in local currency), driven by 23 per cent growth in B&O PLAY (26 per cent in local currency) and 5 per cent growth in the Bang & Olufsen segment (7 per cent in local currency) compared to last year. EBITDAC for the first half of the 2016/17 financial year was DKK 3 million, an improvement of DKK 58 million compared to last year. Free cash flow in the first half of the 2016/17 financial year was DKK 99 million against negative DKK 105 million last year. Excluding the release of the final escrow payment from HARMAN, free cash flow was positive DKK 6 million.

• The outlook for 2016/17 remains unchanged however with additional clarification. Revenue for the Group is expected to grow by 10-15 per cent compared to 2015/16 (previous guidance was growth compared to 2015/16), driven by 25-30 per cent growth (previous guidance was double-digit growth) in B&O PLAY and low single-digit growth (previous guidance was moderate growth) in the Bang & Olufsen segment. The EBITDAC margin for the underlying business for the full year is expected to improve for the full year compared to 2015/16 (unchanged compared to previous guidance).

Any enquiries about this announcement can be addressed to:

Investor contact, Claus Højmark Jensen, tel.: +45 2325 1067

Press contact, Morten Juhl Madsen, tel.: +45 4030 8986

A webcast will be hosted on 13 January 2017 at 10:00 CET. Access to the webcast is obtained through our website www.bang-olufsen.com.